What Happened to the TI-99/4A? Why the TI-99/4A Disappeared

Price was the only way Texas Instruments had left itself to compete, and that is why it walked away from home computers. By October 1983, the previous Christmas best-seller was leaving the factory below cost. In late 1982 the Lubbock plant built 150,000 TI-99/4A consoles a month. Then Commodore cut the VIC-20 to $99, TI matched it at a loss, and a $119 million quarterly loss followed. The deeper cause was set years earlier: a 16-bit chip that IBM passed over, cartridges TI kept to itself, and outside software makers kept away. Inside this video: • Why did TI build a computer around a chip that lost the IBM PC? • What did a forty dollar cartridge cost TI to make? • How did a $100 rebate make the 99/4A number one? • Why did stores send machines back in 1983? If a TI-99/4A was the first computer in your house, you may remember pushing a cartridge into the slot on the right. Tell us which one in the comments. It proves a rule this channel keeps finding: a machine with no outside software can only compete on price. Subscribe for more histories of the first computers families brought home. Sources: The Inside Story of Texas Instruments' Biggest Blunder: The TMS9900 Microprocessor - Walden C. Rhines, IEEE Spectrum, 2017: https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-inside-story... Death of a Computer - Joseph Nocera, Texas Monthly, April 1984: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics... TI-99/4A Home Computer Console data sheet CL709 - Texas Instruments, 1982: https://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20... TI-99/4A Suggested Retail Price List, June-December 1982 - Texas Instruments, 1982: https://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20... #TI994A #TexasInstruments #TI99 #HomeComputer #VIC20 #1980sComputers #RetroComputing #VintageComputer #ComputerHistory #Commodore Disclaimer: The voiceover used in this video was generated using AI.