Article-I.D.: aluxz.235
Posted: Wed Mar 20 08:48:45 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Mar-85 03:14:22 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Allentown, PA
Lines: 13
Xref: watmath net.micro:9767 net.micro.pc:3527

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

Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1152
Posted: Fri Mar 22 20:49:27 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 01:56:56 EST
References: <235@aluxz.UUCP>
Reply-To: haapanen@watdcsu.UUCP (Tom Haapanen [DCS])
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 57
Xref: watmath net.micro:9793 net.micro.pc:3549

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...

Article-I.D.: utastro.1138
Posted: Thu Mar 21 11:32:59 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 03:25:25 EST
References: <235@aluxz.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 19
Xref: watmath net.micro:9798 net.micro.pc:3555

> 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

Article-I.D.: wdl1.341
Posted: Thu Mar 21 15:44:52 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Mar-85 02:34:21 EST
Sender: notes@wdl1.UUCP
Organization: Ford Aerospace, Western Development Laboratories
Lines: 3
Nf-ID: #R:aluxz:-23500:wdl1:1400037:000:73
Nf-From: wdl1!jbn    Mar 21 12:44:00 1985


     The PCJr is indeed dead; see the Wall Street Journal for Wednesday.

Article-I.D.: wdl1.342
Posted: Thu Mar 21 19:51:18 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Mar-85 02:34:36 EST
Sender: notes@wdl1.UUCP
Organization: Ford Aerospace, Western Development Laboratories
Lines: 3
Nf-ID: #R:aluxz:-23500:wdl1:1400037:000:73
Nf-From: wdl1!jbn    Mar 21 12:44:00 1985


     The PCJr is indeed dead; see the Wall Street Journal for Wednesday.