revatt@aluxz.UUCP (EVATT) (03/20/85)
I heard last night that IBM is discontinuing the PCjr as of April. The reason given was poor profit margins or low sales or something like that. Sales had increased dramaticallly during their promotion during the Christmas season I thought. Perhaps IBM did too good a job of crippling the jr to avoid cutting into PC sales and could not recover from all the negative initial publicity is spite of the upgrades they provided. Does anyone know the details about the demise of the jr? If so, please fill us in. Robert Evatt AT&T Bell Labs, Allentown, PA
david@ukma.UUCP (David Herron, NPR Lover) (03/21/85)
Hhhmmm.....
About two weeks ago I was out looking at systems at a local computer store.
The salesman there suggested I wait a few months as IBM was coming out
with a new system *soon*.
1) Has anybody else heard a similar rumor?
2) Is there any truth to it?
If so. Maybe it is a PCjr replacement I heard about?
--
--- David Herron
--- ARPA-> ukma!david<@ANL-MCS> or david%ukma.uucp@anl-mcs.arpa
--- Or even anlams!ukma!david@ucbvax.arpa
--- UUCP-> {ucbvax,unmvax,boulder,oddjob}!anlams!ukma!david
--- cbosgd!ukma!david
"The home of poly-unsaturated thinking".nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather) (03/21/85)
> Does anyone know the details about the demise of the jr? > If so, please fill us in. > > Robert Evatt > AT&T Bell Labs, Allentown, PA Exactly this pattern of events was predicted last fall in the newsletter "Dtack Grounded". The author (Felgercarb N. Eloi aka Hal Hardenbergh) colorfully described the huge inventory of PC Jrs. piling up in warehouses, and predicted IBM would "enhance" the Jr. just enough to the things off the shelves and save the corporate image, then drop the product -- exactly what has happened. I dread reading the next issue -- Felgercarb is not terribly modest. -- Ed Nather Astronony Dept, U of Texas @ Austin {allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
jbn@wdl1.UUCP (03/22/85)
The PCJr is indeed dead; see the Wall Street Journal for Wednesday.
haapanen@watdcsu.UUCP (Tom Haapanen [DCS]) (03/23/85)
In article <235@aluxz.UUCP> revatt@aluxz.UUCP (EVATT) writes: >I heard last night that IBM is discontinuing the PCjr as of April. >The reason given was poor profit margins or low sales or something >like that. Sales had increased dramaticallly during their promotion >during the Christmas season I thought. Perhaps IBM did too good a >job of crippling the jr to avoid cutting into PC sales and could not >recover from all the negative initial publicity is spite of the upgrades >they provided. >Does anyone know the details about the demise of the jr? >If so, please fill us in. The following are excerpts from the Toronto Star, Friday, 1985-03-22. Bad timing, flaws dogged IBM's dead home computer ------------------------------------------------- Did you hear the one about the three dogs? Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and the IBM PCjr? No one would dream of joking of the International Business Machines Corp's fabulously succesful Personal Computer. But its offspring, the PCjr home computer, is indeed a dog. IBM's announcement that it will stop producing the PCjr in April was merely the formal death certificate. Jr had already died from lack of sales. Andrew Toller, Evans Research Corp's director of market analysis, says the PCjr accounted for less than 1 per cent of IBM's sales ($46 billion U.S.) and that all the personal computers only represent about 10 per cent of its business. He estimates that IBM sold about 270,000 PCjr's worldwide in a little over a year, about 8,000 of them in Canada. That compares with about 200,000 home computers sold in Canada last year. Bill Holtzman, public relations director of Apple Canada Inc., says the demise of the PCjr won't make much difference to his company. He estimates that Apple "easily sold more IIc's" for the 1984 Christmas season than all the PCjr's ever sold. ---------------- Neat, huh? \tom haapanen watmath!watdcsu!haapanen Don't cry, don't do anything No lies, back in the government No tears, party time is here again President Gas is up for president (c) Psychedelic Furs, 1982 Disclaimer: I don't work for Apple, although I *may* work for IBM in the summer, and all the opinions are mine. Sigh...