The terrible Radio Shack computer that became your phone

Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, IBM, HP, Samsung…Tandy? Tech history is filled with stories of companies that survived industry turbulence and came out stronger on the other side. There’s also no shortage of companies that fizzled out spectacularly and became little more than footnotes. Such is the story of Tandy and its TRS-80 Pocket Computer.

Sold exclusively through Radio Shack, the TRS-80 was part of a a new generation of tiny, lightweight personal computers you could take on the go. Sure, in 2024, we don’t think twice about the personal computers (aka smartphones) we all carry everywhere, but in the early-1980s, these devices sounded like the future. Popular Science even dedicated its November 1980 cover to the gadgets with columnist V. Elaine Smay writing: “At home, in the office, on the road–these small computers give you brainpower to go.”

If you’ve never heard of Tandy or the TRS-80 Pocket Computer, that’s understandable. Tandy the company gots its name from Dave Tandy and his son, Charles, who ran the Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company in Texas. Yes, a leather goods company that eventually acquired Cost Plus Imports (which would eventually become Pier 1), Color Tile, Leonard’s, and Radio Shack in 1962. It was the purchase of Radio Shack that propelled Charles Tandy into the tech industry.

In 1977, the releases of the Commodore PET 2001, the Apple II, and the TRS-80 desktop marked the first time that fully-assembled, programmable computers could be easily purchased by… pretty much everyone. Before that, hardcore enthusiasts had to put together their own minicomputer kit. And of course everyone knows Apple today, but in 1977, Tandy was as significant as Apple is now. They even had a built-in distribution system through the massively successful Radio Shack, which had more retail locations than McDonald’s. They dominated early personal computer sales by owning 60 percent of the PC market.

So what went wrong? In our latest Popular Science video, host Kevin Lieber not only unravels the history of the TRS-80 Pocket Computer but also slowly descends into a state of unrelenting frustration by trying to use one. Can Kevin find the correct cables to play games on his TRS-80? Why don’t we all scroll Instagram on a Tandy smartphone? The answers provide a lesson in why some companies are lost to time, regardless of how successful or influential they once were.