Tandy and RadioShack

The prototype was demonstrated to Charles Tandy in February 1977, running a tax-accounting program. Tandy himself was a Texan who had built the business out of his father's Fort Worth leather company; the electronics chain was an acquisition that outgrew everything else.

Roach committed to building 3,000 units, a number chosen because it matched the number of RadioShack stores - if they never sold one, each shop could use it for accounting. Leininger argued for at least 50,000 and was laughed at. The TRS-80 was announced on 3 August 1977 and sold roughly 50,000 in its first month.

It was, on the merits, the weakest of what Byte magazine christened the 1977 Trinity. The Apple II had colour graphics and expansion slots; the Commodore PET had an integrated design; the TRS-80 had a Zilog Z80 chosen because it cost $25, a cassette recorder from the shop shelf for storage, and quality complaints that were entirely justified. It also cost roughly half what an Apple II did.

And it won, for years. By 1979 it had the largest software library in the microcomputer market. In 1980 Tandy shipped three times as many computers as Apple. RadioShack was the largest retailer of personal computers in the world through 1982, with a claimed 7,000 stores in 40 countries.

The reason is the whole lesson: everyone else sold computers by mail order or through a handful of specialist dealers, and Tandy sold them off a shelf that customers were already walking past. RadioShack did not adopt superstore retailing until 1991, by which time the advantage had inverted - IBM compatibles and the Macintosh were sold everywhere, and being in your own shops was no longer being everywhere. Tandy left computer manufacturing in May 1993.

It is worth sitting with, because the pattern recurs constantly and is usually described the wrong way round. Tandy did not beat Apple on technology; it beat Apple on reach, and then lost when reach became commoditised. Anyone who has worked in distribution recognises both halves of that.