The question of the first commercially available personal computer has had several answers: Kenbak, Altair, Apple. One machine, offered in 1974 for $795, with 200 bytes of RAM, 4K bytes of ROM, a high level language with intuitive UI and floating point math library, including keyboard, display, and magnetic storage. Did Kenbak offer those? Altair did, but only with the addition of expensive terminals, interface boards and third party software.
This amazing machine was also pocket-sized and battery powered. Yes, it's the HP-65 programmable calculator. Don't stop reading because you think it isn't a real computer. It is fully programmable with conditional branching and subroutines and powerful instructions. Floating point multiply in a single instruction? Try that on your 8008. Its built in display is numeric, not as intuitive as text but much moreso than blinking lights. It gained a huge following and grew software libraries and user groups. So why is its place in computing history not larger?
This amazing machine was also pocket-sized and battery powered. Yes, it's the HP-65 programmable calculator. Don't stop reading because you think it isn't a real computer. It is fully programmable with conditional branching and subroutines and powerful instructions. Floating point multiply in a single instruction? Try that on your 8008. Its built in display is numeric, not as intuitive as text but much moreso than blinking lights. It gained a huge following and grew software libraries and user groups. So why is its place in computing history not larger?