Pieces of Computer Technology Advertising History (aclevercookie.com)

OCT

2007

Pieces of Computer Technology Advertising History

We are in an information age where technology is advancing exponentially at insane speed. Let’s pause and take a moment to remember when the craze was just starting. Let’s go back in time and take a look at what was once cutting edge technology that had us on the edge of our seats, but now is entirely obsolete other than to look at and to try to imagine what we were thinking back then. It helps that people were really freaking bizarre in the 80s too.

Take notice at the approaches that the advertisements are taking, who they are targeting, and what they are promoting. It’s interesting to follow this transformation.

SOL-20 (1975)

The first thing that struck me as amusing in this ad is that they call it The Small Computer. While it may have been smaller than other computers, this shows you that way back in the 1970s, they realized that small was good. This is still today’s mentality: smaller is better. Cram as much stuff into as little space as possible. Nowadays consumer computers are targeted at Home & Office. Here they decided that the ‘lab’ and ‘plant’ were also target markets.

Also note the phrase “It’s a computer you can take home after hours to play or create sophisticated games”. Play or create. It’s not often nowadays that you hear a pitch that appeals to the creative/programmer side of things.

Another thing to note, correct me if I’m wrong, is that they used words (and characters in some cases) to measure the storage capacity of a medium. So, technically, this bad ass computer couldn’t store a thesis.

If you want to see a SOL-20 resurrected, check out jpscone’s page on YouTube. He has a bunch of recent (2007) videos of bringing a SOL-20 back to life.

Challenger II (1976)

Behold: The ultimate in personal computing. With a whopping 32×64 character resolution and a modest price of $598 you can’t go wrong. Also notice the 4K of “RAM memory”. Random Access Memory Memory? Unheard of.

Hold on! Storage space, you say? How many words do you need? 250,000?! Alright, here’s what we’ll do for you. We’ll sell you 16K of space for $2,000. Only in 1976 can you find such a DEAL.

Anyway, back to the story. As you can see, these ads are full of technical specs that even now don’t make sense to some average consumers. “How many gigarams did you say this had?”. Granted, these computers are trying to break into the every day life market, I don’t think we’re quite at “personal computing” yet. Let’s take a look at some more gems.

The Apple-1 (1976)

To be honest, I like Apple’s slogan “Byte into an Apple”.

This was Apple Computer’s first product.

Unlike other hobbyist computers of its day, which were sold as kits, the Apple I was a fully assembled circuit board containing about 30 chips. However, to make a working computer, users still had to add a case, power supply, keyboard, and display. An optional board providing a cassette interface for storage was later released at a cost of $75.

That sounds like Apple, doesn’t it?

The price of $666.66 was real. Kinda odd, but the explanation is that it was sold to resellers at $500 a piece with a 1/3rd mark up in the store, resulting in the devil’s number. I would have avoided that.

Got one of these? Maybe you can join the Apple I Owner’s Club

Commodore Accommodates

This is one of my favorite ads. Commodore took the bold leap of throwing personal computing into pimphoodery. Now you can chill by the pool with the ladies, sip a Mimosa, and… calculate. The ladies will be impressed by your 64K memory and face tan.

What I’m curious about is whether or not you have to plug it in. If so, good luck finding an outlet by the pool. Or, just unpack your computer to feel cool anyway. If anyone asks, tell them you’re running your calculations in non-verbose mode.