(Jacquelyn Martin — Associated Press)
I saw an article in the technology section of the Washington Post today called “From dorm room to Smithsonian” where Michael Dell gave one of his company’s original computers to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The computer was actually owned by someone named Clint Johnson who had the foresight to save his original Dell Turbo that he purchased in 1985, after reading a biography on Michael Dell and realizing he owned a piece of computer history. The Dell Turbo PC is going to take its place in history along with a first-generation IBM PC, an Apple Lisa and the original Apple Macintosh at the National Air & Space museum.
When we look back at the history of computers personal computers Bill Gates and Microsoft will probably get top billing no doubt, but the man who made it possible for millions of people to afford a PC (that runs Bill Gates software) is Michael Dell. While attending the University of Texas in Austin, Dell started a computer company in his dorm room which eventually evolved into the largest PC manufacturer in the world.
What set Dell apart from the other PC manufacturers was that he sold directly to the consumer, there was no middle man or third party vendor that sold his computers for him. Direct selling meant saving on middle man fees which could then be passed down to the consumer. Another innovative idea he came up with was to allow the customer to configure the computer via telephone or order form (internet nowadays) before it was custom built and shipped to them. Therefore the customers got exactly what they wanted and at a price they can afford. There were no storage warehouses or middle man because the computers were directly shipped to the consumer. What a great idea it was at the time - today we take it for granted that anytime we want to purchase a computer we can order it to custom.
The original Dell Turbo deserves its place at the Smithsonian and Michael Dell’s legacy will probably be “the man who made the personal computer affordable to the masses”.
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Interesting post. I have made a twitter post about this. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.