MikeB on 11 July 2008
@ jalsonmi
The first half---I would liek to see some numbers proof to show that Commodore was dominating the computer market to the extant you say it was during the DOS years and into the early Windows years. I'm willing to give you that it was Windows 3.1 that saw an enormous take-off and adoption, but I'm still pretty damn sure IBMs and IBM clones were the predominant computer even in the mid to late 80's.
A maximum of 24% of PCs had the capability of running Windows the year Commodore bankrupted. That's assuming these PCs weren't upgraded with newer versions of Windows, from Windows 1.0 to Windows 3.11. Also many of those Windows enabled computers were actually bought for universities and businesses and not per se in people's homes. Also these systems required MSDOS and so both Windows and MSDOS based software was used on Windows capable systems.
In any case MSDOS was still dominant in 1994, this changed rapidly since the end of 1995 when Win32 was introduced.
Commodore ruled the market with its PET, Vic20, c64 computers from 1977 to 1984.
1983 - Solely all PC clones (mostly at businesses) vs c64 (mostly in homes), 39% vs 61%.
1984 - Solely all PC clones (mostly at businesses) vs c64 (mostly in homes), 44% vs 56%
1985 Total install base all PC clones (1981 to 1985) vs c64 (1982 to 1985), about 50% vs 50%. Just regarding the c64 alone, in addition for this period there were install bases for Atari 400/800s, Vic20s, ZX Spectrum, PETs, Apple II, Macintosh, Atari ST, TSR-80 and other systems.
From 1986 onwards all PC clones combined started to sell more new units per year than other sold systems combined on a yearly basis. It's impossible to know PC market share within people's homes vs usage at businesses/universities (Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3 had become the standard).
