Kicking Junior Out of the Family

For almost a year before it was introduced in November 1983, IBM's PCjr was the subject of anxious speculation and the cause of many a sleepless night for computer-company executives. If Big Blue entered the home computer market, many asked, could firms like Apple and Commodore survive? Texas Instruments dropped out of the competition in October 1983, before it had a chance to find out. IBM played a cool hand: right up to the moment that the PCjr was unveiled, the company denied that such a product existed. Now some IBM executives may wish those denials had been true. The corporation...