The first complete, low-cost microcomputer system for business, home or education - TRS-80

Technically, it wasn't - the [#PET|Commodore PET] was launched several months before the TRS-80 at the January Consumer Electronics Show and as such was the first of the "1997 Trinity" (which also included the [#Apple II]) to be revealed to the public.

However, the TRS-80, or "Trash 80", launched in August, beat the PET to market and was the first of the three to retail in significant numbers. It proved quite popular, selling over 100,000 units in its lifetime. 

It was [!Z80] based and had 4K memory as standard, and retailed for $600, or about [[400|1977]] in [[now]] terms, making it cheap compared to the Commodore PET and the Apple II.

Tandy was a bit like Commodore and Nokia in that it started out as a company doing something completely different - in Tandy's case as a leather goods manufacturer in 1919[source: www.zdnet.com/dead-it-giants-a-top-10-of-the-fallen_p7-3040090912 (dead link)]. 

This compared to Commodore's 1954 start as a typewriter repair outfit or Nokia's 1865 start as a paper and rubber boots producer[source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/03/nokia-rise-fall-mobile-phone-giant]. 

[picture: radioshack_cbs_popel_dec76.webp|An advert for Tandy/Radio Shack's Realistic-branded TRC-55 CB radio - available for $99.95, or about [[70|1976]] in [[now]]]

Tandy - with its large chain of Radio Shack outlets in the US - was already well-known as a provider of consumer electronics such as CB radios.

The computer part of Tandy was sold off in 1993, a year before Commodore filed for bankruptcy, and the name disappeared completely in 2000.

