Although selling computers did not change Radio Shack's image and its executives disliked the "Trash-80" nickname for its products, by 1984 computers accounted for 35% of its sales and the company had 500 Tandy Radio Shack Computer Centers.
Roach became Tandy's CEO in 1981, Leininger became its director of strategic planning, and French founded a software company. Still forecasting 3,000 sales a year, the company sold over 10,000 TRS-80s Model Is in its first one and a half months of sales, and over 200,000 during the product's lifetime. Unlike competitor Commodore-which had announced its PET several months earlier but had not yet shipped any-Radio Shack began shipping computers by September. Small businesses were the primary target market, followed by education, then consumers and hobbyists despite its hobbyist customer base, Radio Shack saw hobbyists as "not the mainstream of the business." Although the press conference did not receive much media attention due to a terrorist bombing elsewhere in the city that day, "six sacks of mail" arrived at company headquarters asking about the computer, and over 15,000 people called Tandy to purchase a TRS-80, paralyzing its switchboard. The company hoped that the new computer would help Radio Shack move into higher-priced products and improve its "schlocky" image among customers. It cost $399, or $599 with a 12" monitor and a Radio Shack tape recorder as datacassette storage before it, the most expensive product Radio Shack sold was a $500 stereo. Radio Shack announced the TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack) at a New York City press conference on August 3, 1977. Roach persuaded Tandy to agree to build 3,500-the number of Radio Shack stores-so that each store could use a computer for inventory purposes if they did not sell. French suggested that the company could sell 50,000 computers, but more skeptical executives disagreed and suggested 1,000 to 3,000 per year at the target $199 price. The program quickly crashed as the computer could not handle the $150,000 figure that Tandy typed in as his salary, and the two men added support for floating-point math to its Tiny BASIC to prevent a recurrence. In February 1977 they showed their prototype, running a simple tax-accounting program, to Charles Tandy, head of Radio Shack's parent Tandy Corporation. In December 1976 French and Leininger received official approval for their project but were told to emphasize cost leaving out lowercase characters, for example, saved $1.50 in components, which reduced the retail price by $5. ĭespite internal opposition to selling a microcomputer, as the popularity of CB radio-at one point more than 20% of Radio Shack's sales-declined, the company sought new products. The company envisioned a kit, but Leininger-who had worked at early computer store Byte Shop-persuaded the others that because "too many people can't solder" a preassembled computer would be better. Although Roach was unimpressed, Radio Shack hired Steve Leininger from National Semiconductor to evaluate French's design, and they began working together in June 1976. After Don French, a buyer for the company, had purchased a MITS Altair kit computer, he began designing his own and showed it to vice president of manufacturing John V. In the mid-1970s, Radio Shack was a successful American chain of electronics stores. īy 1979, the TRS-80 had the largest available selection of software in the microcomputer market. This became a problem when it was determined to violate FCC regulations, leading to the Model I's phase out in favor of the new Model III. One major drawback of the original system was the massive RF interference it caused in surrounding electronics. The pre-release price was $500 and a $50 deposit was required, with a money back guarantee at time of delivery. Notable features of the original TRS-80 included its full-stroke QWERTY keyboard, small size, its Floating Point BASIC programming language, an included monitor, and a starting price of $600. Tandy Corporation's leading position in what Byte Magazine called the "1977 Trinity" (Apple, Commodore and Tandy) had much to do with Tandy's retailing the computer through more than 3000 of its Radio Shack (Tandy in Europe) storefronts. The line won popularity with hobbyists, home users, and small-businesses.
The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For the Chicago-based electronica group, see TRS-80 (group).