When Robert Strauss learned in March that the PCjr computer he had purchased only last November was going to be dropped from IBM's product line, he immediately called the Boston Computer Exchange and put his equipment up for sale. "I wanted to get rid of it before everybody else read the newspapers," says Strauss, a hotel night auditor from Waltham, Mass. But he got no takers, even at 40% off the $1,399 list price. Fifteen months after its arrival on the market, the PCjr had joined the ranks of the computer "orphans." Because it was forsaken by its maker, its owner was likely to face ever dwindling supplies of parts, programs and peripheral devices.
Strauss is in good company. Millions of Americans have plunked down hundreds, even thousands of dollars apiece for computers that turned out to be high-tech white elephants. Owners of low-cost home computers have been particularly hard hit. Among them, they have 2 million Texas Instruments 99/ 4As, 1 million Commodore VIC 20s, 700,000 Timex Sinclair 1000s, 200,000 Coleco Adams, 135,000 Franklin Aces and now at least 250,000 IBM PCjrs--all of them orphans.
In some ways, people with machines orphaned by IBM are better off than those who bought from firms that filed for bankruptcy (such as Franklin, Gavilan, Osborne and Victor) or simply quit the computer field (Coleco, Mattel, Timex). IBM's higher-priced models are still enormously successful, which ensures a steady stream of IBM compatible software, some of which will run on the PCjr. Moreover, the giant company has promised to continue to provide parts and service "as long as the product is around."
Other companies have also made an effort to help owners of their orphans. Texas Instruments maintains a toll-free number (800-TI-CARES) to provide help for people who bought its model 99/4A, and those with Coleco's Adam can still have it repaired by Honeywell, which has agreed to honor Coleco's service contracts for at least four years.
A grim kind of camaraderie is evident among owners of orphaned computers. Those who cannot afford to scrap their machines or donate them to schools as tax deductions often turn to fellow users for comfort and support. As a result, hundreds of orphan-user groups have sprung up across the U.S., holding meetings in company cafeterias, community centers, classrooms and dens. Members swap tips on software, sources for ever scarcer accessories, and techniques for getting the most out of their discontinued machines.
"A lot of orphan computers end up in the closet because people don't know what to do with them," says Susan Mahoney, who directs a Timex Sinclair User Group out of her home in Waterbury, Conn. Her 600-member organization, one of 100 such U.S. chapters devoted to Timex alone, helps bring those computers back out of the closet. The Timex groups exchange newsletters, sponsor joint meetings and cooperate in finding spare parts.
Other organizations are more short lived. Membership in clubs sponsored by the Boston Computer Society often soars when a product is discontinued, only to wane as members move on to bigger and better machines. Says President Jonathan Rothanburg: "After a few years, the groups that form around an orphan computer pretty much disappear."