I am not sure what you mean by "mass access", but the Apple II was a mass-market personal computer. However, what you might describe as mass-market today is ce

I am not sure what you mean by "mass access", but the Apple II was a mass-market personal computer. However, what you might describe as mass-market today is certainly different than in the 1980's, but similarly, the personal computing market size and Wintel's reach during the 1990-2000's will be dwarfed by what mobile computing provides. So its all relative to the market. With that said, Apple introduced computing into the home as a mass market product. Before that, computing was not approachable by non-hobbyists. Everything since has been built upon this revolution. To provide some context, below is a 1983 Time Magazine cover, which illustrates the importance of personal computing even then; before Wintel came to be. Apple wasn't the only player at this time of this cover, but they helped start the revolution lead to the magazine cover. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19830103,00.html http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19830103,00.html Also, you may find this video interesting, which shows Steve Wozniak walking through the evolution of the Apple computer. Again, all of this occurred before Wintel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7NkLGtD84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7NkLGtD84 Edit: Just as an interesting counter-point, this last video sure is prophetic about how you just never know who will try to eat your lunch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InPIGu-bdwM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InPIGu-bdwM