[ARC5] deathwatch for radio shack?

[Joe Connor via ARC5]

Bob:

     I didn't think the Predicta sold well. Wasn't Philco forced to dump a pile of Predictas (at a big loss) to a major motel chain? Didn't the poor sales drive Philco into bankruptcy?

     I see it as a marketing problem because I think the marketing/corporate push was to design something that looked like George Jetson's TV. Don't forget that this was the Sputnik era, when anything with a space-age look was considered to be very cool. It seems that the impetus for the Predicta was marketing, not engineering. 

     The irony is that after the bankruptcy, Ford bought Philc's assets. Thus, the company that came up with the Edsel bought the company that came up with the Predicta. The other irony is that the Predicta, like the Edsel, is now avidly sought by collectors, a half-century too late. 

                               Joe Connor


On Thursday, September 25, 2014 4:25 PM, Robert Nickels <ranickel at comcast.net> wrote:
 

>
>
>On 9/25/2014 2:29 PM, Joe Connor via ARC5 wrote:
>> You want an example of a bad marketing? Try the Philco Predicta TV, which killed Philco. It looked like the kind of TV George Jetson would own but had almost a 100% warranty service rate and was such a pain to work on that many shops refused to touch them.
>
>So Joe, I've worn both hats, but how does a design that fails and is a 
>pain to work on the a result of bad marketing?   Judging from the 
>popularity of the Predicta then and yet today, I'd say marketing got it 
>right, but someone in engineering dropped the ball.
>
>I love my Predicta, but while restoring it I roundly cursed the engineer 
>who thought it would be a fine idea to cover the solder side of the main 
>PC board with metal covers!
>
>73, Bob W9RAN
>
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