[SIGCIS-Members] Computer sales records

[Allan Olley]

Tom,
 	At the risk of getting lost in the weeds of "what is a computer", 
there is probably a case to be made that the Card Programmed Calculator 
as the first computer to have more than 100 sales/installations/rentals 
(and more than 10).
 	A quick check of IBM archives tells me it had 20 installations in 
1949 when it was inaugrated and 700 by the mid-50s. However there were at 
least two versions of the CPC and it is arguably a calculator and not a 
computer.
 	It was programmable enough that things such as an arrangement to 
make it handle floating point were widely shared, on the other hand I get 
the sense some plugging was involved and it and limited programming 
flexibility. Someone who actually knows the nitty gritty of control for it 
and cares about a strict definition of what is or isn't a computer would 
probably be better qualified then me to judge the case.
 	The sales numbers are clear the "computer" part very unclear.

-- 
Yours Truly,
Allan Olley, PhD

http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/

On Tue, 22 Sep 2020, thomas.haigh at gmail.com wrote:

> 
> Hello SIGCIS,
>
> 
> 
> I’ve been emailing back and forth with Allan and David, and we appear to have
> converged on a sense that a 400 lb roll might plausibly been around 4 feet in
> diameter and that photos of the SSEC show space for rolls of at least 3 feet in
> diameter, maybe as much as 4. So I am inclined to credit the testimony of Grosch as
> being at most a small exaggeration. If you look at one of the classic SSEC images at
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/ssec.html, the tape rolls are the three
> large round things at the top of the machine on the back wall. Each punch was
> directly above 10 tape readers, and it appears that the tape emerging from the punch
> could be threaded through all 10 readers to create a buffer memory with 10 chances to
> read each piece of data.
>
> 
> 
> So with that and the hard drive platter taken care of, here is my next batch of
> candidate records. I am trying a “power of 10” approach to computer sales (or in the
> early days, leasing) records with the first machine to hit each milestone. This has
> the advantage that I don’t need to try to figure out exactly with of the many
> estimates of CBM 64 and iPhone 6 sales are accurate, just satisfy myself that they
> were the first to exceed the threshold.
>
> 
> 
> Installed base in excess of…
> 
> first achieved by…
> 
> during sales years.
>
>                             10
> 
> IBM 701
> 
> 1952-1954
>
>                           100
> 
> Probably IBM 650
> 
> 1954-1962
>
>                       1,000
> 
> IBM 650
> 
> 1954-1962
>
>                     10,000
> 
> IBM 1401
> 
> 1959-1971
>
>                  100,000
> 
> TRS-80 Model 1
> 
> 1977-1980
>
>               1,000,000
> 
> CBM VIC 20
> 
> 1981-1985
>
>            10,000,000
> 
> CBM 64
> 
> 1982-1994
> 
> 100,000,000
> 
> Apple iPhone 6
> 
> 2014-2018
>
> 
> 
> Points of possible uncertainty:
>
> 
> 
> 1: was the IBM 650 the first to 100 as well as to 1,000? Seems likely.
> 
> 2: At the time that Commodore claimed the VIC 20 as the first million selling
> computer, claims were also made for the ZX81 as the first computer to sell a million.
> If anyone wants to make a case for Sinclair I will listen.
> 
> 3: In case any Apple fans are about to speak up, re the idea that the TRS-80 was
> first to sell 100K, let me explain my logic preemptively. I am going from a
> combination of this advertisement from Computer World 18 Oct, 1979 celebrating
> 100,000 sold:https://books.google.com.au/books?id=UaKuzwnEiRMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_
> summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false and these plausible seeming estimates of Apple II
> sales by model(https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/459/over-its-lifetime-how-many-a
> pple-ii-computers-were-sold), which suggest only 65K sales of the original Apple II.
> As Radio Shack must have written the copy somewhat prior to the magazine date, say in
> mid-September it is had to imagine that the Apple II Plus, introduced in June 1979,
> sold 35K in its first three months to make up the difference (actually more than 35K
> sales would be needed, to cover however many of the original model were sold between
> Sept 1979 and its withdrawal in 1981). Apple II sales did not peak until well into
> the 1980s, so although the Apple IIe eventually sold millions I believe the VIC 20
> got to the one million milestone first.
>
> 
> 
> Best wishes,
>
> 
> 
> Tom
> 
> 
>