In 1983 in the US, there were 4 million PCs, and game-playing was the principal use, with educational use a close second, and in third place was the financial function for things like budgeting, balancing cheque books, accounting and forecasting and so on.

To illustrate this with a few concrete figures, from the States again, in 1983, 52% of the software was for entertainment programs, whereas only 16% was educational.

Possibly this could be explained by the short life span of computer games, and having teenagers in the home was a decisive factor in the purchase of a personal computer, as households with children in this age-range were 50% more likely to buy them.

As far as the interest versus disapproval statistics go, in the 18-19 age group, 25% expressed interest in PCs and 18% disapproval, and at the other end of the scale, the over-60s showed only 3% interest and resounding 87% disapproval.

And this trend towards PCs is likely to continue as users become more knowledgeble and want more expensive machines with all kinds of new things.

And there's a wide range in sizes, too, as the portable market expands, and now you can buy a featherweight lap-size model that's less than 2 kilograms, or something larger at around 12 kilograms but still portable.

Just to digress slightly, I'd like to point out that microtechnology has hit other aspects of the home and leisure industry as well.