Yet another weapon against Osborne was the Kaypro 10, a deluxe model with a 10-megabyte hard disk. It sold for $2,795, an amazing deal at the time. A hard disk is an aluminum platter coated with magnetic film, and 10 megabytes is the equivalent of 5,000 double-spaced typewritten pages; yet Kay was selling the computer and software for less than the prices of many hard-disk add-ons.
“Adam Osborne,” said Kay, “has said he couldn’t make a portable hard disk because the hard disks are so sensitive to shock. Well, engineering advances are such that hard disks now are capable of being moved. Our very first one was shipped to a show in Germany.”
An InfoWorld headline was less sanguine: “Hard disk, portable ‘newlyweds’ face some problems.”
Could Kay succeed with his hard disk? Another company made the disk itself, and Kaypro had to replace some drives on the early Kaypro 10s. But some glitches were hardly a surprise in any new micro, hard-disk style or floppy. Meanwhile, no less than Control Data, the computer giant, was planning to offer a 5-megabyte hard disk for portables. Already some smaller companies had put out portables with hard disks. And yet Kay, turning out thousands of the machines, was gambling more heavily on their reliability than the others. It could pay, however. New technology might or might not succeed; but in his fast-moving industry, old technology sooner or later would surely fail. To stay alive, he must be among the leaders. More than 150 companies were clawing their way through the micro business in late 1983, and some analysts believed that fewer than 20 could survive five more years. Many of the 150 had only what one expert called “press release products.” But others were real threats; and without the resources of an IBM or Apple, Kay ideally would fight back through innovation as well as good marketing. He needn’t invent any new micro technology. Yet as a survival-minded “solver of problems,” he had better be prepared to make prompt use of the breakthroughs of others.
So major risks were ahead—inevitable—as Kay girded for his next fights with the valley.
Backups:
◼ [I], Twenty-Six Questions to Ask at (and About) the Computer Store, page [281].
◼ [II], A Few Grouchy Words on Printers, page [294].