Microsoft celebrates 30 years of PCs by promising a “re-imagined” Windows 8

Microsoft is celebrating 30 years of the IBM PC.

The software giant’s chief of communications, Frank Shaw, penned a blog post on Wednesday looking back on the past 30 years of personal computing. IBM first introduced the IBM 5150 PC in New York City on August 12, 1981. A number of competitors followed including personal computers from Apple, Commodore and Tandy. “The introduction of the IBM PC was a defining moment for our industry,” said Shaw. “Once IBM entered the market with a system running the Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, our industry really began to realize the dream of a PC on every desk and in every home.”



 Microsoft seized the opportunity for software in a hardware personal computing world. “Thirty years ago, Microsoft believed that making technology less expensive and more widely available would open up amazing opportunities for people and organizations to achieve their dreams,” added Shaw.

Shaw also addressed comments from Apple CEO Steve Jobs about a “post-PC” era. “People sometimes ask me about what Microsoft thinks about the post-PC era,” said Shaw, noting that he prefers to consider it a PC-plus era given there will be 400 million PCs sold this year. “We continue to build great software, and our software’s value is expressed in the consumer and enterprise devices and services we deliver to our customers”, he added.

Shaw also promises a re-imagined next-generation of Windows, currently codenamed Windows 8:

Experiences that’ll combine increasingly powerful and specialized devices with cloud services that’ll make it breathtakingly simple to create, organize, share, find, analyze and archive information, from documents and presentations, to photos, videos, podcasts and so much more.

We have a unique point of view when it comes to this future of devices and services. I’m looking forward to our upcoming BUILD conference in Anaheim, Calif., Sept. 12-15, where developers will hear more about how we’ve re-imagined Windows, from the chip set to the user experience, for this new world."