Editing Information Age (section)

===Personal computers===
{{main|History of personal computers}}

By 1976, there were several firms racing to introduce the first truly successful commercial personal computers. Three machines, the [[Apple II]], [[Commodore PET|Commodore PET 2001]] and [[TRS-80]] were all released in 1977,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZ5s5vfAas4C&q=the+home+computer+market+started+with&pg=PA135|title=Inventing the Electronic Century|access-date=11 August 2015|isbn=9780674029392|last1=Chandler|first1=Alfred Dupont|last2=Hikino|first2=Takashi|last3=Nordenflycht|first3=Andrew Von|last4=Chandler|first4=Alfred D.|date=2009-06-30|publisher=Harvard University Press |archive-date=2022-01-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118185742/https://books.google.com/books?id=wZ5s5vfAas4C&q=the+home+computer+market+started+with&pg=PA135|url-status=live}}</ref> becoming the most popular by late 1978.<ref name="nyt-78-12-06">{{cite news |last=Schuyten |first=Peter J. |title=Technology; The Computer Entering Home |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |department=Business & Finance |date=6 December 1978 |page=D4 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/06/archives/technology-the-computer-entering-home.html |access-date=9 September 2019 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=22 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722192122/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/06/archives/technology-the-computer-entering-home.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Byte'' magazine later referred to Commodore, Apple, and Tandy as the "1977 Trinity".<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.byte.com/art/9509/sec7/art15.htm 
 |title=Most Important Companies 
 |access-date=2008-06-10 
 |date=September 1995 
 |work=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]] 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618072507/http://www.byte.com/art/9509/sec7/art15.htm 
 |archive-date=2008-06-18 
}}</ref> Also in 1977, [[Sord Computer Corporation]] released the Sord M200 Smart Home Computer in Japan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/personal/0087.html|title=M200 Smart Home Computer Series-Computer Museum|access-date=2022-01-18|archive-date=2020-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200103091528/http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en//computer/personal/0087.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Apple II ====
{{Main|Apple II}}
[[File:Apple-II.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|{{center|April 1977: [[Apple II]].}}]]

[[Steve Wozniak]] (known as "Woz"), a regular visitor to [[Homebrew Computer Club]] meetings, designed the single-board [[Apple I]] computer and first demonstrated it there. With specifications in hand and an order for 100 machines at US$500 each from [[Byte Shop|the Byte Shop]], Woz and his friend [[Steve Jobs]] founded [[Apple Inc.|Apple Computer]].

About 200 of the machines sold before the company announced the Apple II as a complete computer. It had color [[Apple II graphics|graphics]], a full QWERTY keyboard, and internal slots for expansion, which were mounted in a high quality streamlined plastic case. The monitor and I/O devices were sold separately. The original Apple II [[operating system]] was only the built-in BASIC interpreter contained in ROM. [[Apple DOS]] was added to support the diskette drive; the last version was "Apple DOS 3.3".

Its higher price and lack of [[floating point]] BASIC, along with a lack of retail distribution sites, caused it to lag in sales behind the other Trinity machines until 1979, when it surpassed the PET. It was again pushed into 4th place when [[Atari, Inc.]] introduced its [[Atari 8-bit computers]].<ref>{{cite news | first=Jeremy | last=Reimer | title=Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures; The new era (2001– ) | url=https://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.ars/9 | pages=9 | work=Ars Technica | date=14 December 2005 | access-date=13 February 2008 | archive-date=21 February 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221215218/http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.ars/9 | url-status=live }}</ref>

Despite slow initial sales, the lifetime of the [[Apple II]] was about eight years longer than other machines, and so accumulated the highest total sales. By 1985, 2.1&nbsp;million had sold and more than 4 million Apple II's were shipped by the end of its production in 1993.<ref name=reimer>{{cite news|first=Jeremy |last=Reimer |title=Personal Computer Market Share: 1975–2004 |url=http://www.jeremyreimer.com/total_share.html |work=Ars Technica |date=December 2005 |access-date=13 February 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606052317/http://jeremyreimer.com/postman/node/329 |archive-date=6 June 2012 }}</ref>