Personal Computers in the Corporate Enterprise: A History and Reasons for Evolution and Estimation of Future Use.
This paper explores the history and the future of the personal computer in the corporate enterprise, with a focus on the evolution of products and services to a point where the modern PC has supplanted professional models in almost every area save that of massive industrial data processing. Indeed, the success of the PC in the business environment suggests that business strategy that incorporates PCs is utilizing a cost- efficient method of introducing computers into the workplace. Creating an environment in which the maximum amount of efficiency is achieved for minimum cost is the goal of every business strategy. Personal computers create a form of distributive computing where the work is shared out over a wide base of users and the results of that work is stored in a single centralized environment, or is kept and shared on independent personal computers. Yet while the past and the current conditions of this process of having personal computers within the workforce is a known quantity, it remains absolutely unclear as to what the future of personal computers in the office shall be. This paper explores how the development of the personal computer has led to this point and why it is highly likely that the PC will remain a constant in the corporate enterprise.
