We've come a long way, baby: the iPhone 4 vs. the IBM PC (Infographic)

Have you ever wondered just how far we've come since the early PCs? Back in 1981, more than 30 years ago, IBM introduced the first IBM PC. Since that time, the computing world has been, essentially, a PC world.

Until recently.

Recently we've moved from the big-box-with-disks model to a world where most computing devices will be smartphones, where the cloud is the center of our universe, and what doesn't fit in our pockets can be pulled from the air.

In the spirit of that transformation, my Internet Press Guild colleague Alfred Poor (@Alfred Poor) set out to create an infographic showing the difference between an ancient PC and a current iPhone. He calls the infographic "unfair comparison" and in a minute you'll see why.

Before I show you Alfred's work, I wanted to thank Input Creates Output Editor-in-Chief Esther Schindler (@estherschindler) and the kind folks at HP's Input/Output site for permission to re-run the infographic, which originally appeared at 30 Years Later: an Unfair Comparison between an IBM PC and an Apple iPhone 4.

One other note: even though Input Creates Output is a vendor site, some of the very best tech journalists on the planet write for Esther, so take a few minutes and give Input Creates Output a read. It's got good, hard-hitting stuff and is definitely not your typical self-serving vendor mouthpiece.

While Alfred wrote the infographic, David Foster designed it. So I'll leave you with a disturbing thought David shared earlier today: neither device can run Flash.

Image used with permission.