At the time (around the middle of the 20th century) when a few people knew the word "computer", and the most of them thought that the "computer" meant a person who solved equations, there were people, who dreamed for a personal computer. There were a number of contenders for the title of Personal Computer before the machines that we now think of in this context appeared on the scene. For example, some historians have called IBM 610 Auto-Point Computer, introduced in September, 1957, IBM’s first personal computer on the premise that it was intended for use by a single operator, but this machine was a big cabinet, was not based on the stored program concept and it cost $55000, a huge sum for the time! No way to be personal at all! So, who was the first?
The Electric Brain Simon, Edmund Berkeley, 1950
LINC (Laboratory Instrument Computer), 1961
Dynabook, Alan Kay, 1968
Hewlett-Packard 9100A, 1968
CT-650, Irving Becker, 1969
Imlac PDS-1, 1970
Datapoint 2200, 1970
Kenbak-1, John BlanKENBAKer, 1971
Xerox Alto, 1972
Micral, François Gernelle, 1973
Scelbi-8H, 1974
Altair 8800, Ed Roberts, 1974
Apple ][, 1977
IBM PC, 1981
Osborne 1, 1981
Commodore 64, 1982
Apple Macintosh, 1984