I think you head the nail on the head when you said there were no IBM-exclusive chips. I think the openness of the system followed by the proliferation of clones drew a ton of companies and developers to the platform.
The IBM also looked like a business machine whereas others felt cheap. It may not have looked like much on first glance but they struck a good midpoint between the C64/Apple etc and the business-oriented minicomputers on the higher end of the scale.
I think the success of the 5150 was less about what it did and more about what it was and what that represented, particularly to businesses
I think you head the nail on the head when you said there were no IBM-exclusive chips. I think the openness of the system followed by the proliferation of clones drew a ton of companies and developers to the platform.
The IBM also looked like a business machine whereas others felt cheap. It may not have looked like much on first glance but they struck a good midpoint between the C64/Apple etc and the business-oriented minicomputers on the higher end of the scale.
I think the success of the 5150 was less about what it did and more about what it was and what that represented, particularly to businesses