From memory, IBM PCs were not things people had at home until much later. Actually they didn't really show up outside of word processing and spreadsheets in a business setting, in the early days (so for example University CS people were using VAXen and Sun workstations, not PCs).
Household object is not the same as household name. IBM transformed computers between the 1950s and 1980s, and people were aware of that even if they did not own an IBM product. They were a mega corporation with significant advertising and marketing budgets.
The point I made was that IBM were slow to release a home machine. And even when they eventually did release their first PC, it was still viewed more as a business machine. meanwhile Apple and Microsoft (amongst others) were already established in the home computer market.
It took years for the PC to become dominant. Frankly their dominance isn’t even because of IBM but instead because every other manufacturer ripped off IBMs design. Some of us old timers still call those macHines “IBM-compatible” since the term “personal computer” wasn’t always specifically referring to an x86+BIOS, like it later came to be in the 90s.
I do miss the 70s and 80s era of computing. Everything felt new and magical. It was like your imagination was the only limit. A bit like web development in the 90s and AI these days. As nice as it when an industry matures, there is a lot of fun to be had in the early days when everyone is doing silly things because there’s nobody to tell us otherwise.
