I'd argue for 'open' hardware platform more than anything. Take a look at other personal computers of the time, within an order of (or two) magnitude price up o

I'd argue for 'open' hardware platform more than anything. Take a look at other personal computers of the time, within an order of (or two) magnitude price up or down, like Mac, Amiga, Atari, SUN, HP(UX), and SGI. They all had great(er) software and hardware and more advanced OS' and features, but got trumped quickly. On the software side, PC had business productivity from the start which could be used as an argument on the software front (Lotus 1-2-3, namely).