Chapter 9
The PC Industry

By 1985, IBM had entered the fledgling personal-computer field and transformed it into an industry, while Apple’s Macintosh had changed expectations about how people interacted with personal computers. But now the hobbyist days were fading and personal computing was entering a new phase. This new era would be a long and impressive period of growth with no direct parallel in any other industry. There was no question any longer that this was an industry, yet the indications of its hobbyist beginnings were still visible. People who came out of that culture still wielded great influence, people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. In fact, this era would be bracketed at the beginning and end by two eerily parallel events: the ignominious departure of Jobs from the company he cofounded, and his triumphant return.