It sounds like a joke today: A major retailer, concerned about waning interest in CB radio, decides to offer a new product line. But the retailer isn’t sure this new product line will have any staying power. Would the market grow that much? Would consumers be that interested in personal computers? Find out how it all unfolded in this edition of Tech Time Warp.
We’ll give you a moment to guffaw, but this is exactly the situation RadioShack found itself in during the late 1970s—and on Aug. 3, 1977, the company introduced its first personal computer, the TRS-80 Model I.
To his credit, RadioShack President Lewis Kornfeld did say this upon announcement of 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.”
TRS-80: The budget PC that changed everything
The TRS-80’s sales figures erased any remaining doubts: 10,000 units sold in the first month and over 100,000 in the next two years. The TRS-80 rightfully earned its place in what is known as the “1977 Trinity”. It is the trio of personal computers that took microcomputing out of kit form and made them accessible to the average person. Like the Commodore PET and the Apple II, these personal computers were ready to use out of the box.
The TRS-80 came at a much friendlier price than its competitors. It sold for $599, compared to $795 for the Commodore PET and $1,298 for the Apple II. ($599 equates to about $3,157 in 2025 dollars.) The price catapulted RadioShack into the position of No. 1 seller of PCs through 1982.
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This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.