Macintosh emerges as an alternative to MS-DOS PCs. PC AT takes desktop by storm. The year of the desktop database. Digital Equipment has its strongest year, becoming a threat to IBM, but it's the minicomputer's last stand. Unix gains mind share, eroding faith in minicomputers and mainframes.
Ethernet takes over.
It's finally the year of the LAN in the hardware sense, as hubs and adapter cards from SynOptics and 3Com are everywhere. 1990 Router deployment goes through the roof. It's the year of the WAN as companies tie their newly built LANs together across the enterprise. 1991 Windows, Windows everywhere. The monopoly takes hold big time.