Facebook has defined the social era of computing-and the companies that defined the previous eras of computing each command market values of $200 billion or more

For all the naysaying about Facebook, that it’s a flash in the pan and such, there are very few that say that say that “social” is going away.

Facebook has defined the social era of computing-and the companies that defined the previous eras of computing each command market values of $200 billion or more. Facebook should get there, too IBM kicked off mainframe era of computing and to this day is the leader in big enterprise computers and services. Microsoft was an early leader in personnal computer software and now dominates microprossor based desktops and servers. And after joining the scrum at the tail end of the dotcom boom of the 1990s, Google emerged as the leader of the internet era of computing, amassing huge market share and most of internet advertising’s profits. While many still think of Apple as a computer company, it’s not. It’s reinvented itself as the leader of mobile era of computing. Three quartes of Apple’s revenues are now from the iPhone, iPad and iPod, and it is the process of re-creating the Mac as a mobile computer with the MacBook Air. Apple, as the leader of mobile era of computing, is now valued at an astounding $400 billion plus.

Given the history of IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, that each respectivrly led the Mainframe/minicomputer, personnal computer, Internet, and mobile eras of computing, it is not that much as of a stretch that Facebook, as the company that defines the social era of computing , will be right up there with them. Each of these eras have produced prodigious revenue and earnings, and as Facebook’s S1 filing shows, social is already well on its way to stellar revenue and earnings—making the bulk of its money the way Google does, though advertising. The leaders of each era have managed to lock in a generation of users ranging from business datacenters, PC operating systems and applications, and the portal by wich people search. Facebook’s social graph will be just as persistent. While other niche social networks will emerge, most of us aren’t going to switch. Of course, Facebook’s current revenue and earnings does not justify such a valuation, but Facebook is still young and doubtless will figure out plenty of ways to make more money, including selling valuable new ad units such as sponsored stories against its increasing number of mobile ,users. So long as it ti continues on its existing trajectory, the leader of the social era of computing will join others in the $200 billion club. Coincidentally, those three companies—each of wich dominated an are of computing—are now each worth roughly $200 billion.