Commodore dominated the fledgling computer market in the early 1980s. The C64 model, which came onto the market in 1982 and sold millions of units, became an icon that is still revered today. At the beginning of the 1990s, however, the company’s management made an increasing number of bad decisions, and in 1994 it had to file for bankruptcy.
In 1954, Jack Tramiel, who had survived the concentration camps in Auschwitz and Hanover-Ahlem as a boy, founded the company Commodore International, or Commodore for short, in Toronto, Canada. The manufacturer initially sold typewriters, the individual parts of which had been purchased cheaply and then assembled. This began the history of one of the best-known companies to this day.
Japan – both competitor and inspiration
Just a few years after Commodore’ founding, Tramiel realized he could not keep up with increasingly strong competition from Japan. So, the entrepreneur initially tried his luck with mechanical addition machines. However, in the mid-1960s, the Japanese once again defeated him. On the advice of his primary investor, Tramiel traveled to Japan to see his superior competitors.
He returned from this obviously inspiring trip to West Chester in Pennsylvania (where Commodore had moved in the meantime) with the idea of concentrating on the manufacture of pocket calculators with immediate effect. Texas Instruments supplied the necessary components, while Commodore continued to assemble the individual parts. This business model worked until 1975. At this time, Texas Instruments decided to launch fully assembled pocket calculators on the market under its own name. Of course, TI was able to significantly undercut Commodore’s prices, so Tramiel was once again faced with a fait accompli. He knew that if Commodore wanted to remain competitive in the future, it had to free itself from dependence on suppliers.
PET 2001 and C64
This was achieved a year later, in 1976, when Commodore took over MOS Technology, one of the most important chip manufacturers at the time. This move turned out to be a double win. Commodore now not only had free access to the calculator components, but the development team at MOS Technology, led by Chuck Peddle, also brought a whole new level of expertise into the company. Peddle was appointed head of development at Commodore almost immediately. He showed Tramiel the future potential of the microcomputer market, which promised enormous profits.
Convinced by the potential, Tramiel launched the first Commodore computer, the PET 2001, in 1977. The PET 2001 was also the world’s first mass-produced personal computer that was not completely unaffordable for private households. While not a bargain at an initial price of almost 3000 marks, the Commodore computer was significantly more affordable than its competitors. An interesting tidbit: In Germany, the PET 2001 was distributed by Quelle, the country’s largest mail-order company at the time.
Top seller Commodore C64
Over the next few years, Commodore gradually took over the market leadership for home computers. The C64 model presented in 1982 played a major role in this. In 1983, Commodore achieved a market share of 25 percent. The clearly lagging competition, Apple and Hewlett-Packard, had to make do with second and third place with 16.5 and 11 percent, respectively.
A total of 22 million units of the C64 were sold. Commodore had “reached the top,” as the saying goes, and only the best was good enough. From 1984 to 1989, the company was a shirt sponsor for FC Bayern Munich. It transferred 2.5 million marks per season to the German record champions.
A successful investment, as the Commodore brand awareness in Germany rose from 31 to 92 percent during this time.
Amiga 500 – the next success story
Commodore had long since established itself internationally and founded subsidiaries worldwide. In Germany, it was Commodore Büromaschinen GmbH that successfully managed the German business from Frankfurt am Main from 1982 onwards. A factory for final production with its own development department was even set up in Braunschweig. Of course, the development machinery at the parent company continued to run at full speed. After the immediate, moderately successful successor models to the C64 (Plus/4 and C128), the Amiga 500 was presented in 1987 as a real success story. The Amiga 500 quickly gained a reputation as the best gaming computer on the market. This was particularly due to its picture and sound quality, which was well above the standard of PCs at the time.
Three years earlier, in 1984, Jack Tramiel had already left Commodore in a dispute. However, the entrepreneur did not remain inactive. In the same year, he had taken over the then loss-making home computer division of Atari. Tramiel was able to achieve some successes, for example, with the 520ST model (1985), which at 800 dollars was almost half the price of the Amiga 1000 presented by Commodore in 1986. However, a fierce battle for market dominance now broke out between Commodore and Atari, from which Commodore initially emerged victorious thanks to the Amiga 500.
However, as is so often the case in the history of large companies, crucial mistakes were made when it came to success. Market developments were missed, and a lot of money was invested in unpromising projects. There was also room for improvement in marketing, to put it kindly. At least that’s how Dave Haynie tells it in his two-hour film “The Deathbed Vigil and Other Tales of Digital Angst,” which the computer developer filmed during the last days of Commodore International at the company headquarters in West Chester.