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Old 01-10-2008, 08:57 PM   #19
The Alternative
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TI-99/4A

Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
Does anyne here remember the TI-994a computer? Texas Instruments sold it at a loss and was hoping the peripherals/software would make up for it. That did not work and the TI-994a stopped being sold. If Amazon is doing the same with their ebooks, then you can expect Amazon to one day stop selling them.
Texas Instruments actually sold this unit for $525.00 when it first came out (and at far from a loss). The rarer TI-99 sold for a whopping $1,100.00. TI only dropped the pricing much later when other computer companies began mass-producing low priced competitive machines (i.e. Commodore International). I personally believe that Amazon, as well as other booksellers, will sell more electronic books in the future, rather than less.

For a more detailed history behind the eventual price reduction of the TI-99/4A see the article at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99
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