25 Jun
2007
25 Jun
'07
2:09 p.m.
Here we go
again.
What does "First Off-the-shelf Microcomputer" mean?
First to go into design?
First announced?
First demo'd?
First prototyped?
First to enter production?
First "released"? (what does THAT mean?)
First that could be ordered?
First delivered?
First that could be purchased for cash in a store?
Fair point and some good questions.
but far from a complete list of the variant ways to define "first"
I had never thought that my personal issue of price was valid for
determining "first", but, . . .
For me, personally, what mattered was the first one
under ?100. (At
that time, in the early 1980s, under US$100 would have done as a
comparison.)
I remember one time in the ealry 1980s checking into exchange rates,
particularly dollar/yen for Epson HC20, RC20, etc. At that time, a USD
was about 300 yen, and there were IIRC 2.85 USD per British Pound. It
sounds like Timex was giving us an exceptional deal, relative to Sinclair
in the UK.
As far as I heard back then, Apple did the first
machine
for under $1000. Very nice for those rich Americans in the prosperous
north or coastal states. Pure fantasy for a middle-class English kid
in the Europe. That was possibly the family's net income for several
months.
ISTR a base price for Apple around $1200 USD
I was running a successful business at the time, so my funds for following
up that particular fantasy were substantially better than when I was a
kid.
For a more formal definition, though, I'd say
"the first personal
computer" that mattered would probably be the first
microprocessor-based machine, with a QWERTY keyboard and an actual VDU
of some form - i.e., more than a single line of text - that ordinary
customers could pay money for and receive in return. Not pre-order,
but buy and receive. How or where doesn't matter.
Well, there does seem to have been some game-playing with prices in other
markets. The TRS80 was $599 in the USA, but $399 without monitor and tape
recorder.
Were ALL micros cheaper in the US than in the UK?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com