[Coco] Another Radio Shack Article

[Arthur Flexser]

Al, my reaction is that by the time the CoCo 3 was released, it was
too late to recapture Tandy's market share.

I think Tandy's problem from the outset of the CoCo line was that they
were obsessed with the CoCo's not drawing any customers away from the
more expensive business-oriented Model 1 and its successors.  Instead
of quickly introducing an advanced version of the CoCo and promoting
it as both a home and business computer, they deliberately hobbled the
CoCo and focused their marketing on the "great educational toy for
your kids" strategy.  They neglected the possibility of bringing out a
more expensive and more capable CoCo for the CoCo enthusiasts they'd
created until way too late in the game.  Even as Rainbow's reader
surveys were showing their average reader to be an adult in a
technical field, Tandy would put ads in Rainbow showing kids playing
Megabug under the Christmas tree.

The most obvious example of CoCo hobbling was the boneheaded decision
to limit the CoCo 1 to a 32-character text screen so that it could be
used with a TV.
No monitor output. That made it look like a toy and I think that's the
major reason why it was rapidly outstripped by the Apple II, Commodore
64, Amiga 400, etc., despite Tandy's huge marketing advantage in
having the Radio Shack stores to sell it in.

As Boisy and Bill's book notes, the people in charge of the CoCo line
were enormously focused on how they could shave pennies off of
production costs, and too little interested improving the machine to
make it more attractive and charging a bit more.

I just looked at the ad reproduced on page 88 of the book, the 1985
comic "Alec and Shanna Starring in the Computers that said NO to
Drugs".  (Right, all those other computers can't get anything done
because they're getting high all the time.)   Imagine, with Scripsit,
you can do word processing with BOTH capital and small letters!  In
the final panel, Shanna is explaining to her teacher that she knows so
much about the new computers because she has a CoCo 2 AND her dad has
a Tandy 1000!  (Where did I put that barf bag?)

Art


On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Al Hartman <alhartman6 at optonline.net> wrote:
> Tandy tried to position the Coco 3 against the Apple IIgs and the Amiga 500,
> but the machine wasn't compelling enough because the graphics, color and
> sound weren't as good.
>
> If I were Tandy, I might have licensed the Laser 128EX Computer, or had
> Franklin spin an Apple Clone to try to get a foot back in the educational
> market.
>
> I don't know what Radio Shack can do today to recapture mind share and
> market share.
>
> When I worked there, Television Antennas were a big part of our business.
> We'd sell hundreds a month. That's obviously gone now.
>
> Cell phones didn't save them. I don't think Arduino's will be a significant
> business.
>
> Maybe Radio Shack needs to jump on the 3D Printing bandwagon?
>
> -[ Al ]-
>
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