What is the Personal Computer?

A personal computer (PC) or micro‐computer is any general‐purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user who may not have specialized computing skills or knowledge. This is in contrast to large expensive mainframe or minicomputer systems designed for use by many people, usually at the same time, or large data processing systems which require specialized staff to operate efficiently. A PC may be a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet PC, or a handheld PC (also called a palmtop).The PC industry began in 1977, when Apple, Radio Shack and Commodore introduced the first off‐the‐shelf computers as consumer products. Prior to this, computers were generally found in universities and laboratories only.

IBM introduced the IBM PC in 1981. Since then, the PC market has been dominated by two types of PCs –IBM PC Compatibles and computers produced by Apple. IBM PCs and its compatibles are computers based on CPU's built by Intel and run Operating Systems know as Windows (other OS are also available for IBM PC Compatibles, e.g., Linux). Apple has its own hardware and OS.

Capacity: Large hard disks combined with a large working memory (RAM)
Speed: Fast. Normally measured in GHz.
Costs: Getting cheaper by the day.

Typical Users: Home users, large and small office users. Education, Doctors. In fact just about everyone needs to know how to operate a PC these days.