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TANDY CORPORATION
By K. B. Bogen
The beginning of the end.
The Beginning
Computers come and computers go. TRS-80, CoCo, Model 1, Model 4, Model 16, Model 100, Tandy Model 1000. Does anyone remember these? Tandy Corporation/RadioShack was once one of the biggest names in home computing. So what happened?
Tandy started out as a family-owned leather store in 1919. They carried leather and leather-crafting supplies. In time, they added wall decorations and flooring to the list, selling such items as picture frames, mirrors, wall art, and wall and floor tiles. In 1963, Tandy Corporation bought the Boston-based electronics store called—you guessed it—RadioShack. And, thanks to the marketing talent of Charles Tandy, it became a giant in the electronic retail business. They sold parts, wire, small appliances, electronic toys, and more. But it didn’t stop there. In 1975, the leather and the wall- and flooring-related items were spun off into different companies (Tandy Leather/Tandycrafts and Color Tile), and Tandy Corporation began focusing on the electronics market.
In 1957, John Roach joined the Tandy team as manager of Tandy Data Processing. A few years later, he became vice president of distribution for RadioShack. In 1975, he rose to vice president of manufacturing. After Charles Tandy’s death in 1980, Roach was appointed executive vice president. Next, he was RadioShack’s president and chief operating officer. Then CEO in 1981. And chairman in 1982.
Roach focused his attention on the computer market. And, as he rose up the corporate ladder, RadioShack’s computer sales rose with him. Until they didn’t anymore.
The Model 4 and Model 16, mentioned above, were some of the earliest home computers sold by RadioShack. There were others. They had everything a neo–computer wizard might need. A word processor, BASIC, and other useful software were included. Additional software was available, such as C compilers, Database Management software, and more.
Released in 1983, the Model 100 was one of the early netbook-sized portable computers. Its small size (300 x 215 x 50 mm or approximately 12 x 8.5 x 2 inches) made it perfect to slip into a briefcase or purse. It had a full keyboard, a built-in modem, and up to 32K static RAM. Yes, computer geeks, that’s 32K.
Unfortunately, all of the TRS-80 computers used proprietary software. If it wasn’t written exclusively for the destination machine, it didn’t run. But then, all of the other computers on the market at the time were like that. If it wasn’t IBM-PC software, it didn’t run on an IBM-PC. If it wasn’t Apple software—well, some things never change.
Then, wonder of wonders, IBM’s proprietary software shell was cracked. Computer companies raced to see how fast they could crank out computers that were PC-compatible. And so did Tandy. The SQC group spent many hours making certain that the Tandy Model 1000 (then known only as “Project 557”) was 100 percent compatible with IBM shelf software. Then there was Model 2000, which was (is it possible?) too fast. It couldn’t run IBM’s software. At first. And there was the Model 3000, 4000, etc. RadioShack continued producing newer, faster PCs until the end of the 486.
Tandy Corporation/RadioShack sat at or near the top of the heap for decades. What happened?
The Beginning of the End
Tandy jumped into the PC-compatible market with both feet. And they did it really, really well. But, as so often happens, they made a few mistakes along the way.
In 1985, they pulled the Model 600 out of mothballs. It had been sitting in the warehouse, unwanted and unloved, for who knows how long? Years, maybe. Up until the Model 600, Tandy had been fairly competitive, even aggressive, in the computer race, holding its own with the likes of Epson, IBM, and others. But not with the 600.
The Model 600 was a laptop computer, complete with hinged display, modem, floppy drive—a TRS-80 home computer in a size that fit into a briefcase, with room to spare. They dragged it out of the warehouse, dusted it off, and asked SQC to perform the usual testing on it. But in secret.
One member of the SQC team was asked to take the 600 home and check it out. So, the tester smuggled the computer and documentation out in two briefcases. One for the computer and one for the documentation, which outweighed the computer. This went on for a week. Every night after work, the tester took the briefcases home, then spent the evening checking the operating system, software, and documentation for errors. And every morning, the two briefcases had to be lugged back to the office, to be kept under lock and key.
The good news was there were no problems discovered in the testing. The bad news was that it was a TRSDOS machine, using the famed Tandy proprietary software. The really bad news was that, by the time the Model 600 was being tested, there were already several similar machines on the market. The Osborne 1, the Epson HX-20, and more. It was a case of letting the horse out of the barn after it had burned down. Or, in this case, after someone had built three other barns and filled them with horses.
Tandy could have released the 600 earlier, after it was first built. And that could have been a major building block for them. But they didn’t. They released it too late, and other companies beat them to market. They kept its existence a secret and they kept the testing a secret. The upper management didn’t seem to want anyone to know about the 600—not their customers, not their employees, and especially not their competitors. And, apparently, not the marketing department. Sales were poor and it was dropped from inventory shortly after its release.
Then, a short time after the testing and release of the Model 600, the SQC department was disbanded, leaving only a handful of employees to tidy up. The reason? The company was switching to “vendor support” for the third-party software. And since SQC’s main function was to test the third-party software, they weren’t needed anymore. Unfortunately, “vendor support” is virtually synonymous with “no support.”
If Tandy had tested and released the 600 soon after it was originally developed, marketed it properly, migrated the concept to the PC-compatible era, and (and this is a very important and) continued to develop and test their own software and hardware products, perhaps they would have remained at the top of the heap. By eliminating the thing that made them famous (computers and related electronics), they were eliminating their future.
And that was only the beginning of the end.