Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Computers: A Flop Becomes a Hit
Price cuts, new features and big promotions rescue IBM's PCjr
Only six months after IBM introduced the PCjr home computer in November 1983, the machine looked like one of the biggest flops in the history of computing. Despite IBM's towering prestige and a marketing budget estimated at $40 million, the PCjr sold as sluggishly as Edsels in the late 1950s. Consumers seemed to be turned off by the computer's toylike appearance and $1,269 price tag. Dealers, stuck with growing inventories of unsold machines, were beginning to panic. Wrote Popular Computing Columnist Steven Levy: "The machine has the smell of death about it."
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