[Coco]: Tandy's biggest mistakes thread

[L. Curtis Boyle]

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 16:27:30 -0600, <alsplace at pobox.com> wrote:

> I worked for Radio Shack during the final years of the CoCo. Back then,  
> the CoCo remained Tandy's #1 best selling computer every holiday, but if  
> someone could buy a Tandy 1000 TL instead, we'd make much more  
> commission.  I sold CoCos where appropriate, preaching the fun of OS-9,  
> the more colorful games, etc. (CoCo 3 had better graphics, etc. than the  
> Tandy 1000 TGA 16 color screens had, for example.)
>
> Radio Shack did not want the CoCo to suck away sales from the more  
> expensive machines, as simple as that.  But, internally Tandy did have  
> bigger plans for the CoCo, some released, some not.  For example:
>
> 1) Tandy made a hard disk interface for the CoCo, allowing it to use the  
> hard drives for the Model III/4 machines.
>
> 2) Tandy discontinued the disk drive for the CoCo (yes they did!) for a  
> short time, with the plan being to sell the interface and then let the  
> CoCo folks buy the same external floppy drive used on the Tandy 1000 RX.  
> (Or was it the HX? The all-in-one PC.)
>
> * This would have given the CoCo a 3.5" drive through Radio Shack.  For  
> whatever reason, this did not happen and the FD502 came back.
>
> 3) At Tandy Tower, depending on who you ask, Tandy either had an  
> engineer who had repacked a CoCo in an 1000 RX case, OR there was a CoCo  
> prototype that had a disk drive built in, in a *similar* case/design as  
> the RX.
>
> * Now that we've seen the CoCo 3 motherboard prototypes, with the FD1773  
> controller BUILT IN, I no longer buy the "it was a repack" story I've  
> heard.  Heck, the prototype has 512K, so maybe that was in the original  
> standard?  But, would people buy a $500 CoCo w/drive that only ran CoCo  
> software, or spend a bit more for a full PC that ran tons of new PC  
> stuff?
>
> 4) Tandy adopted 3rd party express order HARDWARE as well as software.   
> I believe I bought my Disto Super Controller 2 (no halt floppy!) through  
> Radio Shack, if I recall.  That was a rather high end disc controller  
> for the day. There were a few other items there that indicate Tandy was  
> open to promoting the higher end side of the CoCo.  Need we point out  
> OS-9?
     This didn't start till quite late (the Coco 2 was already out before  
Express Order started, meaning the Coco 1 had no such marketing for at  
least 3 years), and (here in Canada, at least), they would NOT carry any  
of the stock for it in store, nor would they advertise them (you had to  
ask for that specific catalog, and if you were Joe Blow off the streat who  
had never heard of Rainbow magazine to see ads, you would never know that  
these existed). So, if a customer walked into a store, they would know  
nothing about no-halt disk controllers, VIP Library, or anything else that  
was sold through Express Order.


> So, the real problem was probably twofold:  1) sales people could make  
> more money selling a PC, which was probably seen as a better choice  
> (more standard; the PCs killed off ALL 8-bits, not just the CoCo), and  
> 2) Tandy could make more money too so had little reason to keep the CoCo  
> around.
>
> During the early days, you could get a COmmodore at K-Mart, Sears, etc.  
> while CoCos were only at Radio Shacks (not counting the TDP System  
> 100).  More "normal" people could find and buy a cheap C64 at the local  
> mall, while they may not have ever even set foot into a "nerd" store  
> like Radio Shack.
>
> Radio Shack pioneered "buy, take home and use" computers.  "The Biggest  
> Name in Little Computers", my CoCo 1 box says.  But, that market --  
> early adopters -- was not a market to continue to survive.
>
> The Tandy 1000 became the #1 best selling PC clone, and the first PC  
> clone to break $1000, but that didn't last.  Even when Tandy moved to  
> "the next big thing in computers" -- PCs -- and dominated it (first  
> computer to have the Good Housekeeping Seal, for example), it didn't  
> last.  THe market changed.
>
> Yes, Radio Shack could have done more; and it seems they tried.  After  
> all, the C64 was a $650 computer when I bought my CoCo for half that...  
>   Would the C64 been a success if it had stayed at $650?  They got the  
> volume up, and prices down...
>
> Cheapness won ;-)
>
>      -- Allen
>
>



-- 
L. Curtis Boyle