• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Tandy Discussion from OEMs & clones on eBay (continuous listings) thread

Agent Orange

Agent Orange

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
6,650
Location
SE MI
Last edited by a moderator:
Agent Orange said:
First time I've seen a Tandy 1200 from1985. Didn't realize that they even existed that far back.
Click to expand...
The 1200HD was introduced alongside the 1000 in late 1984. The first version had 5 slots, a full-height floppy drive, and a standard hard drive. Later the "HD" was dropped from the name and it became just the Tandy 1200, with 7 slots, half-height floppy drives, and an optional hard drive.
 
vwestlife said:
The 1200HD was introduced alongside the 1000 in late 1984. The first version had 5 slots, a full-height floppy drive, and a standard hard drive. Later the "HD" was dropped from the name and it became just the Tandy 1200, with 7 slots, half-height floppy drives, and an optional hard drive.
Click to expand...
Must have been a cat order? Never saw one in a Radio Shack.
 
I'm still confused. You weren't aware of the Tandy 1200s existence? Or weren't aware they sold them in 1985?
 
kantexplain said:
I'm still confused. You weren't aware of the Tandy 1200s existence? Or weren't aware they sold them in 1985?
Click to expand...
Why are you confused? If you would go back to #621 you would see what I said. BTW, I live in the metro Detroit area, which had an abundance of RS's back in the day, and I wasn't able to acquire a 1000SX until late '85 and my friend's father was the area distributer for Radio Shack. Even then in this area you had to prepay and wait with a voucher. There were no 1200HD's to be had or I would have had one. Doesn't men they didn't exist, which they did, just not available in these parts. We okay on this now?
 
It's simply a rebadged Tandon clone. And I don't think there was s uch a creature as a 1000sx in late 85. I bought a 1000 very late in 85. That's all there was as far as I know. I did have to wait a few days/week for mine also. It just may be that RS didn't keep much stock on hand. And come to think of it they had to give me a loaner vm-2 as the upgraded CM-? That I ordered.wasn't immediately available either.
 
Maybe his timing is off by a year. The 1000SX was introduced in late 1986, and by then, the 1200/1200HD had already been discontinued. It was last advertised in June 1986, at the discount price of $999.
 
My timing was off as it was 1986. If I recollect, Tandon was short lived and eventually wound up with Tandy. AAMOF, one of their regional offices used to be near me off of I-275 the Novi, MI area. The biggies back then, at least in this area were the XT clones. Folks were putting them together and selling them out of their garages. Software was pirated and mostly coming from the Big 3 auto makers.
 
Agent Orange said:
My timing was off as it was 1986. If I recollect, Tandon was short lived and eventually wound up with Tandy. AAMOF, one of their regional offices used to be near me off of I-275 the Novi, MI area. The biggies back then, at least in this area were the XT clones. Folks were putting them together and selling them out of their garages. Software was pirated and mostly coming from the Big 3 auto makers.
Click to expand...
Huh? Tandon was founded in 1975 and lasted well into 1990s. (Chatsworth, CA).
 
Chuck(G) said:
Huh? Tandon was founded in 1975 and lasted well into 1990s. (Chatsworth, CA).
Click to expand...
Talking about their PC line, not the drives.

From the Wiki:

Tandon sold its original data-storage business to Western Digital for nearly $80 million in 1988.[7]

The company then brought in former IBM and other computer industry executives in an attempt to remake the company as a leading producer of personal computers.[2] By 1989, nearly all (90 percent) of its personal computer sales were in Europe, and its stock price had fallen from a 1983 peak of $34.25 to $0.50.[2]

Enter Tandy.
 
Chuck(G) said:
But, AFAIK, they were still registered as a business in 1992. Still don't see how Tandy fits in.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure of the business or corporate end, but the Tandon Model 1200 did appear in Radio Shack stores. My point was that Tandon's PC line never lasted very long on this side of the pond. Looking at some WSJ articles, it doesn't appear that there was any merger of such between Tandy and Tandon.
 
Indeed. I'm aware that Tandon shipped a 386SX machine (don't recall the model number), but little past that. Perhaps they didn't like competing with the big boys. Other outfits, such as Wyse, made similar exits at about the same time. My first 1GB 3.5" was, in fact, a JTS, (made in Chennai) about 1995. Terrible drive that wouldn't fit in a drive caddy (too long). Built on the then-bankrupt Kalok technology.
You do know that JTS bought out Atari and sold off the assets around the same time, right? JTS was dissolved in 1999.
It was all Juggi Tandon...I believe he still ran an EMS outfit called Celetronix (India), which was subsequently acquired by Jabil Group.
 
I believe the Tandy/Tandon relationship lasted about a year and a half. I don't know how the pie was carved as far as profits go, but both were on the decline as far a PCs go.

The first 3.5 IDE that I worked with was a 470 GB on a 386 Gateway tower that my fed outfit bought a carload of. Shortly there after, we upgraded to the 2000 series and I don't remember the configuration - this was somewhere in the mid 90's. Our so called IT chief purchased a boat load of "pssst -hey Joe" laptops from some where in NYC and they had bad LCDs that couldn't be replaced. Next came pretty good Gateway laptops with a docking station which took 2 men and a small boy to lift, and cost way more than the laptop itself. The thing even had a keylock and a hard drive. It was a novelty and none of my compatriots or myself ever used the things. I often wonder where they ended up. We were using Banyan Vines in those days along with PC Anywhere. Not a bad way to go in the field and it got the job done. Next came an AT&T T1 for every office. That required a dedicated telco line and a Cisco router with some peripherals. Worked real well and they are still using a version of them to this day.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Holy cow, you must have been flush with cash to afford a 470GB on a 386. My first was a 50 MB Maxtor, followed by a trail of Conners in the 200-300 MB range, then some WDs, in the 1-2GB range.
Click to expand...
That was a typo - should have been 470KB. The Gateway 2000 came with a 1.6GB which everyone fawned over. I had 50MB hardcard that I got out 80 Micro for my 1000SX and I think I paid dearly for it. Also, still have a working Maxtor 20MB SCSI with a 8-bit controller that I occasionally drop into the 1000SX,

Chuck, you should know by now that my middle name is "Typo".
 
First too big, then too small. Now for just right. I remember moving up to a 200MB drive on my old Gateway. I thought that was way too much space at the time. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top