Tandy/Radio Shack Advert - June 1983
From Personal Computer World
Introducing the Tandy Micro Executive Workstation
Proving that it's possible to stretch out a model name to any possible extreme, comes the "Micro Executive Work Station" (MEWS), otherwise known as the TRS-80 Model 100 - the TRS-80 being a 1977-vintage desktop actually made by Radio Shack, whilst the Model 100 was a rebranded portable unit made by Kyocera in Japan.
Tandy's TRS-80 Pocket Computer, from 1981. It sold for £119 - about £610 in 2024 money.
Spiritually the ancestor of the company's TRS-80 Pocket Computer of 1981, it was an 8-bit machine based on the Intel 80C85 with up to 32KB RAM, retailing for £649 for the 24K model - that's about £2,760 in 2024. It went on to shift 6 million units[1].
Inside the TRS-80 100 Pocket Computer. From Personal Computer News, 7th July 1983
Personal Computer News suggested in its 7th July 1983 edition that the 100 could sell very well among people who already have a perfectly good computer, but that many of those would probably not have a TRS-80 logo on them, despite what Tandy would like to have believed.
This wider audience would require Tandy to change its previous attitude, which seemed to have been "well it works with Tandy equipment, and we neither know (nor care much) about the rest". Tandy machines were still only available through the company's own premises - which was good if there was one nearby - but at least that meant that there was also somewhere to take it back for repairs if something went wrong.
The review in Personal Computer News concluded:
"given enough tries, anybody's going to get it right eventually, and with the Model 100 Tandy has. It isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than anything else around"
Date created: 01 July 2012
Sources
Text and otherwise-uncredited photos © nosher.net 2024. Dollar/GBP conversions, where used, assume $1.50 to £1. "Now" prices are calculated dynamically using average RPI per year.
