For people who were involved home computers during the 1980's, the Commodore brand was everywhere. the corporate burst on the scene, was the toast of the last decade, then appeared to vanish almost overnight. Where did Commodore come from, how'd they get so popular, and what happened to them?
The Early Years
Commodore made its name initially within the 1970's making calculators. Commodore's calculators were very successful until Texas Instruments entered the market and was ready to sell calculators to the general public for fewer money than it cost Commodore to form them. the corporate that might become Commodore actually started in Toronto in 1954 manufacturing Czechoslovakian designed typewriters then adding machines. When typewriters manufactured in Japan became available at a less expensive price, Commodore turned to calculators.
Trying to get over the infiltration of Texas Instrument calculators on their market, Commodore struggled to seek out their next niche. within the mid-to-late 1970's, Commodore purchased variety of chip suppliers and entered the private computer market, little did they know they were close to experience success they hadn't thought possible. In 1977 Commodore launched the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) and was officially a computer company from that time on. The PET was primarily placed and marketed to colleges and was found to be durable and highly popular. the planning didn't lend itself to the house computer market mainly supported its lack of graphics and seemingly poor sound quality.
Prime Time
In 1981, Commodore rectified this with the launch of the Commodore VIC-20. The VIC-20 had a suggested retail price of $299 and wasn't limited in where it had been purchasable. Many computers of the time were available solely through distributorships, but Commodore made the VIC-20 available through normal shops. Commodore aggressively marketed the VIC-20, even using William Shatner as a spokesman. The VIC-20's tagline was "Why Buy Just A Video Game?" The aggressive marketing paid off and therefore the VIC-20 became the primary computer to possess a million units shipped to customers. Over the lifetime of the VIC-20, over 2.5 million units were sold.
Commodore's most famous model, the Commodore 64, was introduced in 1982 and featured better sound and graphics capability than the VIC-20. The initial price was $599 which was significantly less than most other 64K home computers on the market. In fact, Commodore's slogan for the 64 was "You Can't Buy a far better Computer At Twice The Price". In 1983, in an attempt to undertake and dominate the house computer market, Commodore drastically cut the worth of both the VIC-20 and therefore the Commodore 64. Soon this started a computer price competition involving Commodore, Texas Instruments, Atari, and most smaller brands of computers. When the dust settled Commodore had shipped about 22 million Commodore 64's making it the simplest selling computer of all time, driven Texas Instruments out of the house computer market, almost bankrupted Atari along side many smaller companies, and exhausted most of their own savings.
In dire financial straits following the mid 1980's computer price competition that that they had started, Commodore refocused within the late 1980's and purchased alittle company called Amiga Corporation. Commodore brought the Amiga 1000 and its new 16-bit technology to the house computer market in 1985. The Amiga 1000 was marketed directly at its strengths which were far better sound and graphics capability. The initial price on the Amiga 1000 was $1295 and was the pc of choice for technology and gaming geeks of the time.
The End Is Near
Commodore then found themselves in legal trouble involving lawsuits back and forth between them and Atari Corp. which had since been purchased by Commodore's original founder Jack Tramiel. By 1987, most lawsuits had been dropped or settled with Commodore beginning on the incorrect side. the discharge of the Amiga 500 in 1987 found Commodore triumphing over Atari and outselling their popular ST model by a margin of 1.5 to 1. After variety of adjustments within the computer market, including the increase of Apple and therefore the PC (both IBM and its clones), along side Commodore removing its line of computers from retailers and making them only available through distributors, and Commodore's stance that they might not pursue mass marketing campaigns, Commodore found themselves languishing at or near rock bottom of major computer companies. 1994 would find Commodore only operating profitably within the UK and Germany and eventually filing for bankruptcy.
After bankruptcy, the Commodore and Amiga brand names would move numerous times with variety of companies marketing subsequent model of computer or peripheral unit under this already established name. The name though would nevermore see the success it saw within the 1980's when everyone had to possess the Commodore 64.