Lance Birch wrote:
> 
> Well, I guess that's one alternative...  Not a particularly appealing one
> though... Oh well...
> 
> --
> Lance.
> 
> P.S.  As I remember it the first calculators were about the size of
> typewriters and had neon tube style digits (you know, the thin nice looking
> orange ones that were stacked behind one another...)

  I have a shoe box full of the old neon, HV gas fluorescence tubes, and
some seriously vintage led displays I picked up at a community parking lot
sale one day.
 The names most recognizable on the displays are Honeywell, T.I., and
Sperry-Univac. T.I. is not so surprising but the other two act as a reminder
of what can happen to a company that is at the top of the heap in an industy
but fails to pay attention to trends and customer needs and gets wiped out of
the running for the duration. Honeywell was easily in a position to control a
major percentage of the consumer PC industry and they let slip it right through
their fingers. Had they decided to build on their already high market share of
the mainframe computer industry and expanded to the consumer PC industry
they would be a house hold name in the industry today. Same with Sperry-Univac
but overly diversifying was ultimately their downfall. Mostly due to failed
contracts with US Military related programs and the end of the cold war.
It's a shame Honeywell didn't take the plunge. I could easily see myself
explaining to friends that I want to rush home and get some work dome on my
Honeywell 2000 Mark IV Super Computer system. I could not with a straight
face say the same thing about wanting to go home to play with my Apple :)


-- 
Ken Tyler

mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

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