To sell the IBM Personal Computer (officially called the IBM 5150, although barely anyone actually used the name), Big Blue took a note out of Apple’s playbook and focused on making the computer seem accessible and friendly. At the time of its launch, the IBM PC enjoyed two major advantages over the Apple II computer, which launched four years earlier. With Apple computers and IBM PCs unable to talk to one another until 1993 (when the two companies shipped their first collaborative product), many customers who used IBM computers at work simply decided to go with what they knew when buying their first home computers.