3 Aug
2022
3 Aug
'22
11:09 a.m.
At 2022-08-03T14:32:10+1000, steve jenkin wrote:
Price didn’t win the market. IBM’s 5150 was never
“cheapest” or
technically “best” at any time - hence rapid rise of (variable
quality) clones, built down to a price.
Wikipedia says:
1978: H11 US$1295 (kit) or US$1595 fully assembled ("4kword base system”)
display advert
<http://www.decodesystems.com/heathkit-h11-ad-1.gif>
$1295 kit + postage/freight, bare system, 8KB
(4kword), 6 Q-bus slots free. ROM ?
1981: IBM 5150(PC) US$1,565 for "16 KB RAM, Color Graphics
Adapter, and no disk drives.”
( I only saw 5150’s with 2x 5.25” 360KB floppies
included - otherwise, can’t run programs & store
files)
Yeah, you could. You simply didn't store stuff to disks.
You used audio cassette tape.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_cassette_tape
Regards,
Branden