Prestel - the biggest breakthrough in communication since the telephone and television

By late 1981, Tangerine - a company founded in 1978 as a video display card manufacturer but which by now was more famous for its Microtan 65 computer - had released the Tantel Prestel adapter, via its Tandata offshoot. 

At one point it was so successful that it had captured 70% of the Prestel adaptor market[source: "Interview: Paul Johnson of Tangerine", YC, November 1981, pp. 24-25].

The Tantel had not been in Tangerine's roadmap, with the company intending to focus on its colour VDU card and modem for the Microtan. 

Instead, it was approached by a Prestel insider who suggested that it should build an adapter, instead of its other add-ons.

Paul Johnson - one of Tangerine's founders and its only hardware designer - knocked up some designs and decided it was a viable suggestion, saying:

~"From the day we decided to manufacture the Tantel, it took just seven weeks to produce a circuit diagram and a circuit-board layout, to finalise mechanical engineering aspects, to write the software, and to win Post Office approval. We had already conceived the product and knew roughly the approach we were to take".

Despite the enthusiasm that Tangerine had for producing the Tantel, Johnson was scathing of the Post Office itself and how it went about promoting Prestel. In an interview published in November 1981's YC, Johnson said:

~"[The Post Office] spends an absolute fortune on telling people how wonderful Prestel is and how wonderful the Post Office is for having invented it, but the campaign does not actually say 'you need it, go out and buy it'. About £6 million was spent on one promotional campaign not so long ago. What the Post Office must do is increase public awareness of Prestel. Before we entered the scene, the entire industry had spent £48 million and produced 7,000 registrations. Goodness knows what they spent it on. Little old Tangerine has sold 5,000 adapters since then. We are doing more for Prestel than anyone else".

The relative success of the Tantel was such that the company was considering splitting itself into two divisions - one to manufacture Viewdata products, and the other to continue with its computer line.

