Tandy/Radio Shack Advert - October 1978
From Personal Compuer World
TRS-80 - The biggest name in little computers. Complete and ready to go NOW!
It's another advert for one of the "1977 Trinity" - the Z80-based Tandy TRS-80.
A year after its launch, the Level-II system appeared, with an expanded BASIC in ROM, now at 12K.
The price has also increased, relatively - the fully-specced version with 16K was now £870 including VAT, or about £6,070 in 2024 terms, a leap up from the £400 (£3,470) that the original went for. That compares to the 16K Commodore PET's price of £625 (£4,360).
It's likely that the increase was for the same reason that Commodore's prices went up sharply after launch: as a way of managing demand. The TRS-80 was, for a while, the best seller of the '77 trinity, selling 100,000 in its lifetime.
In common with many sytems of the day, the default data storage mechanims was cassette tape - there was even a market in special short-length C-12 tapes - with the TRS-80 coming bundled with a "Realistic CTR-41". Realistic was Radio Shack's consumer brand name.
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.
