Editing TRS-80 (section)

=== Announcement ===
Having spent less than {{US$|150,000}} on development, Radio Shack announced the TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack) at a New York City press conference on August 3, 1977.<ref>{{cite magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150803160213/https://time.com/3968790/tandy-trs-80-history/ |archive-date=3 August 2015 |url=https://time.com/3968790/tandy-trs-80-history/ |title=The Personal Computer That Beat Apple (For a While) |first=Lile |last=Rothman |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> It cost {{US$|399}} ({{Inflation|US|399|1977|r=-2|fmt=eq}}), or {{US$|599}} ({{Inflation|US|599|1977|r=-2|fmt=eq}}) with a 12" monitor and a Radio Shack tape recorder; the most expensive product Radio Shack previously sold was a {{US$|500}} stereo. The company hoped that the new computer would help Radio Shack sell higher-priced products, and improve its "schlocky" image among customers. Small businesses were the primary target market, followed by educators, then consumers and hobbyists; despite its hobbyist customer base, Radio Shack saw them as "not the mainstream of the business" and "never our large market".{{r|thomas1977}}{{r|brown198001}}{{r|reed2}}<ref name="freibergerfuture19810831">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rD0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA49 |title=Radio Shack Prepares for the Future |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |date=31 August 1981 |volume=3 |number=17 |access-date=26 October 2016 |author=Freiberger, Paul |author-link=Paul Freiberger  |pages=51, 53–54}}</ref>{{r|bartimo19840820}}{{r|white198708}}

Although the press conference did not receive much media attention because of [[Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña#Major incidents|a terrorist bombing elsewhere in the city]], the computer received much more publicity at [[Boston University]]'s Personal Computer Fair two days later.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Computer fair comes to Boston |journal=Personal Computing Magazine |date=1 May 1977 |url=https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputing19770506/page/n13/mode/1up |access-date=7 March 2021 |quote=If you are going to be anywhere all the computer buffs from near Boston on August 4th, 5th or 6th, you may want to get over to Boston University. They are going to have a PERSONAL COMPUTING show complete with exhibits, seminars and everything that's new and up to date that you can see, touch, feel and play with in home computing. And just because Boston suburbia has more colleges and universities per square foot than any other region of the United States doesn't mean that this computing show is just for high school, college students and their professors. To be sure, MIT, Tufts, Harvard, Boston College, Brandeis, Emerson, Simmons, Northeastern, Babson, University of Massachusetts, Bentley, Wentworth, Lincoln, Emmanuel, Lesley, Curry, Radcliff, Jackson, Suffolk, Wheelock and so forth will be there. B.U. is organizing the fair to be of interest for everybody in personal computing.}}</ref>{{r|bartimo19840820}}{{r|brown198001}}<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/sep4.htm Clinton Pardons Terror]. ''[[New York Post]]''. 1999-08-13. Retrieved 2017-08-03.</ref>{{r|ap19770806}}{{r|freibergerfuture19810831}}{{r|fylstra197804}}<ref>Pérez, Gina M. (2005). [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/489.html Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN)]. Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society.</ref>{{r|reed2}}{{r|thomas1977}}{{r|welch2007}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Blast from the Computer's Past |url=https://wtcomputers.com/2017/08/blast-computers-past/ |website=World Technology Computer Repair and Service |publisher=World Technology, LLC |access-date=7 March 2021 |date=3 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction of the TRS-80 at the Boston Personal Computer Faire in 1977. (Photo) |url=http://forums.lawrencehageman.com/media/introduction-of-the-trs-80-at-the-boston-personal-computer-faire-in-1977.510/ |website=Lawrence Hageman Forums |access-date=7 March 2021}}</ref> {{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2021}} A front-page [[Associated Press]] article discussed the novelty of a large consumer-electronics company selling a home computer that could "do a payroll for up to 15 people in a small business, teach children mathematics, store your favorite recipes or keep track of an investment portfolio. It can also play cards." Six sacks of mail arrived at Tandy headquarters asking about the computer, over 15,000 people called to purchase a TRS-80—paralyzing the company switchboard—and 250,000 joined the waiting list with a $100 deposit.{{r|thomas1977}}{{r|welch2007}}{{r|reed2}}<ref name="ap19770806">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cVlNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1649%2C1159626 |title=Computers May Soon Be In Homes |work=[[Lakeland Ledger]] |date=August 6, 1977 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=January 23, 2015 |pages=1A}}</ref>{{r|fylstra197804}}{{r|white198708}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2021}}

Despite the internal skepticism, Radio Shack aggressively entered the market. The company advertised "''The $599 personal computer''" as "the most important, useful, exciting, electronic product of our time".<ref name="rs19780526">{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3365536// |title=To the Doctor, the Lawyer, the Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker, and Everyone Else |work=[[The Galveston Daily News]] |date=1978-05-26 |access-date=6 October 2015 |pages=3–A |type=advertisement}}</ref> Kornfeld stated when announcing the TRS-80, "This device is inevitably in the future of everyone in the civilized world—in some way—now and so far as ahead as one can think", and Tandy's 1977 [[annual report]] called the computer "probably the most important product we've ever built in a company factory". Unlike competitor [[Commodore International|Commodore]]—which had announced the [[Commodore PET|PET]] several months earlier but had not yet shipped any—Tandy had its own factories (capable of producing 18,000 computers a month) and distribution network, and even small towns had Radio Shack stores. The company announced plans to be selling by Christmas a range of peripherals and software for the TRS-80, began shipping computers by September, opened its first computer-only store in October, and delivered 5,000 computers to customers by December. Still forecasting 3,000 sales a year, Radio Shack sold over 10,000 TRS-80s in its first one and a half months of sales, 55,000 in its first year, and over 200,000 during the product's lifetime;{{r|fylstra197804}}{{r|swaine19810831}}<ref name="hogan19810831">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rD0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44 |title=A Look at Radio Shack's Five Computers |access-date=February 28, 2011 |author=Hogan, Thom |date=August 31, 1981 |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |volume=3 |number=17 |pages=44–45}}</ref>{{r|thomas1977}}{{r|ahl198411}}{{r|welch2007}}<ref name="bartimo19840820"/>{{r|leininger19770917}}<ref name="rscat1977">{{cite book |title=1977 TRS-80 Radio Shack Introduction Brochure |year=1977 |url=http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs_extra/1977_rsc-01/ |publisher=Radio Shack |access-date=March 14, 2011 |archive-date=July 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715145146/http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs_extra/1977_rsc-01/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|4}}<ref name="brown198001">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/stream/80-microcomputing-magazine-1980-01/80Microcomputing_0180#page/n27/mode/2up |title=The Tandy Story |access-date=October 17, 2013 |author=Brown, Chris |date=January 1980 |work=[[80 Micro]]computing |pages=28–30}}</ref>{{r|white198708}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2021}} one entered the [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]]'s [[National Museum of American History]].<ref name="righthand20100803">{{cite news |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/august-3-1977-the-trs-80-personal-computer-goes-on-sale-186379/ |title=August 3, 1977: The TRS-80 Personal Computer Goes on Sale |work=Smithsonian |date=August 3, 2010 |access-date=January 23, 2015 |author=Righthand, Jess}}</ref> By mid-1978 the waits of two months or more for delivery were over,<ref name="baker19780428">{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3365595// |title=Microcomputer stirs interest |work=[[The San Bernardino County Sun]] |date=1978-04-28 |access-date=6 October 2015 |author=Baker, Joe |pages=B-19}}</ref> and the company could state in advertisements that TRS-80 was "on demonstration and available ''from stock now'' at every Radio Shack store in this community!"{{r|rs19780526}}

[[File:Home or Personal Computers from 1977 - Commodore PET 2001, Apple II, TRS-80 Model I, together called 'Trinity77' (edited image).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''Byte''{{'}}s "1977 trinity": Commodore PET, Apple II, and TRS-80 Model I]]