On August 3, 1977, at a press conference in New York, a personal computer was announced that for a few years sold more than the Apple one released the year before.
It was called TRS-80, not a big name actually: was an acronym that stood for Tandy Radio Shack. Tandy was a company that controlled about 3,000 electronics stores under the Radio Shack brand at the time. They were convinced that there were at least 10 million customers who could have bought a low-cost personal computer. The price was actually cheap, $ 399, and sales flew. The forecast was to sell three thousand in the first year, while they were ten thousand in the first month to reach over 200 thousand. It was indeed a novelty: The Associated Press noted with amazement that the TRS-80 could “handle fifteen paychecks, teach math children, keep their favorite recipes and investments in the stock market, and even play cards “.
Soon the TRS-80, in its new versions became the best-selling personal computer in the world. And then? Then it lacked charm and even those who had bought it jokingly called it TRASH-80, junk. Personal computers were about to become a religious issue: the world was about to split between Apple followers and IBM devotees allied with Microsoft. Soon there would be no memory of the TRS-80.
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