FREE Companies & institutions LESSON · Companies & institutions
1975 — From kit to platform
MITS, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and Compaq
From kit to platform
The Altair exposed a bus to hobbyists; Apple integrated a usable product; IBM legitimized the business PC while publishing design details and buying key components; Microsoft licensed an operating system across manufacturers; Compaq recreated the BIOS legally and made compatibility portable. Value moved from the whole machine toward interfaces, applications, and the component able to serve every clone.
Modularity expands a market by letting specialists enter, then concentrates bargaining power at whichever interface becomes the hardest complement to replace.
Institutional reconstruction
Draw the PC complement map—CPU, bus, BIOS, operating system, applications, OEM, retailer, and user. Simulate IBM closing one boundary and predict the effect on adoption, clones, and Microsoft.
Trace the scarce resource, coordination mechanism, power boundary, and newly possible failure.