Display article   Subject:  February 1992
   04/30/97   19:58:26


TANDY USER GROUP NEWSLETTER........................FEBRUARY 1992

Material contained herein may be reproduced in whole or in part
in user group newsletters.  Please quote source as Tandy
Corporation/Radio Shack.  The company cannot be responsible
for inaccuracies or for information which changes prior to or
after publication.

Send questions/suggestions to:  Ed Juge, Director of Market
Planning, Radio Shack, 700 One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX
76102.



Fifteenth Year in PCs Brings Changes to Radio Shack

That's right... try as they may to make their tenth anniversary
sound like the tenth anniversary of personal computing, IBM
joined the party several years after the fact.  The first
"microcomputers" were sold as kits in the mid 1970s to dedicated
computer hobbyists... in very small quantities.  The first
ready-to-use, fully-assembled units appeared on the scene in
1977.  In that year, Apple, Commodore and Tandy announced and
shipped computers.  Who shipped first?  That's been a subject of
debate ever since, and unquestionably depends on your definition
of "shipped."  (How many constitutes really "shipping"?)

Radio Shack introduced the Radio Shack TRS-80 Microcomputer on
August 3, 1977, and shipped in quantity by September.  That year
represents the first year PCs were sold on a nationwide basis,
and Radio Shack was the first to sell them widely through more
than 3000 stores.  Over the years, we have introduced more than
50 computer models (leaving out most of the enhancement-only
models).

Going into our fifteenth year in the industry (Sorry, Big Blue)
we are making a significant addition to our product strategy.
We've always worked to bring new, value-added technology to Tandy
computers... multi-voice sound, digital sound, the unique DeskMate
interface, power-and-run capability with DOS in ROM and
multimedia, to name some.  Tandy will continue to innovate and
bring market-leading technology to PCs in the areas of
home-appliance computing, pen-based computing, multimedia and
more.

This year, we will add a second parallel strategy in the form of
a family of locally-available, locally-serviced and supported,
low-cost, high-performance personal computers.


New Tandy 2500 SX/25

The first of this line was actually the 2500 SX/20 you saw at
Christmas.  The performance/value combination was outstanding by
any measure... even against computer discount store pricing.  In
the past couple of weeks, an upgraded version of that computer
has been announced.  The Tandy 2500 SX/25 is a 25 MHz 386SX-based
computer with 85 MB hard drive, VGA, Tandy's digital sound system
and 2 MB of system RAM... all for $1299.95 at participating Radio
Shack stores and dealers.

The 2500 SX/25 comes bundled with a mouse, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.0,
Microsoft Works and a unique software offer.  We will furnish
2500 SX/25 purchasers with any Windows upgrades introduced
between purchase time and June 30, 1992, at no extra charge.

If you've watched the evolution of the 2500-series, you've seen
something that will characterize this new family of computers.
We went from a 16 to 20 to 25 MHz processor, and from 20 to 40
to 85 MB hard disk in jumps that were sometimes only a few months
apart.  Our new line will track the changes in technology and
pricing closely, and react to them almost immediately.  Radio
Shack's "point-of-sale system" and other operational changes
we've been making allows us the control necessary to react very
quickly.  We're using "just-in-time" manufacturing, rather than
ordering a 6-month supply of a particular component (usually just
before it gets faster or cheaper).

Of course not all product upgrades will be major, but you can be
pretty confident that what you're buying is the latest version of
available and dependable hardware.


The Fast Track!

Within the closing days of January, we kicked off the new
strategy publicly with a news release announcing a very exciting
new product, the Tandy 4825 SX computer.  The 25 MHz i486sx
chip with 8K cache is Intel's latest version, and the 4825 SX is
one of the very first PCs to use it.  Even though the 4825 SX
earns a very speedy 54 rating from Norton's SI benchmark test,
it can be upgraded to double the CPU performance through the use
of future Intel speed-doubling upgrades!

This screamer is housed in our low-profile cabinet like the
2500 SX series.  Standard features include 4 MB of system RAM
(expandable to 32 MB on the mother board), a 120 MB, 15 ms.
SmartDrive IDE hard drive, 1.44 MB floppy drive, Super VGA support
on the mother board (512K video RAM expandable to 1 MB), three
industry-standard expansion slots, a 100-watt power supply, two
serial ports and one each mouse and parallel printer ports.

We've bundled the 4825 SX with a two-button mouse, DOS 5.0,
Windows 3.0 (with free upgrade) and Microsoft Works for Windows
software.  As you might expect, the software is pre-installed and
pre-configured for you on the hard disk.  There are no easier PCs
on the market to get up and running!

The suggested retail price for the 4825 SX, at participating Radio
Shack stores and dealers, is just $1,999!

A floppy-only version of the 4825 SX will retail for $1,699, and
a Multimedia PC version will be available later for $2,799 at
participating stores and dealers.

I promise you, this is not the end...1992 will be a very exciting
product year for Radio Shack.


New Pre-Sale Customer Support Announced

As personal computers become more powerful and feature-rich, the
industry trives to make them easier to use.  At the same time,
however, those computer-literate users (like most of you) have
more and more detailed questions.  It will be difficult for any
retailer to answer some of them at the retail store level.

To address these issues, Radio Shack is initiating a service we
call Open Window Hotline.  Every Radio Shack store will have a
special phone line to connect a customer directly to our
home-office technical team -- free of charge -- for in-depth
information he or she wants.


Tandy 1000 RLX News

The Tandy 1000 RLX computer has been reduced in price, to become
the third member of our new price/performance family, and
representing the '286 processor area.  Effective the end of
January, the RLX with 40 MB hard drive and VGA monitor will sell
for $999.90.  It continues to include a mouse, two joystick ports,
microphone and headphone jacks, and one each serial, parallel and
mouse port.

Of course our DeskMate and DeskMate Home Organizertm software --
with new voice messaging featured -- are loaded on the hard disk
and ready to use.

There you have the first three members of our new
price/performance line, and our new Open Windows Hotline service.
Many Tandy PC owners write or call every month.  If I compiled a
wish list from your requests, the top three items, without any
question, would be better help with technical questions, more
competitive pricing and higher performance.  The above changes
should go a long way toward providing what you've asked for.

I think you'll be pleased, and I hope you'll agree with me...
it's a great way to start our fifteenth year in the PC business.

Unfortunately, it's travel time again.  I'm trying to finish this
up on a Saturday evening before leaving on Sunday, so...

See you next month!
