Commodore International
More info
- Creator
- Jack Tramiel
- Released
- 1954–1994
- Type
- Computer manufacturer
A typewriter importer that sold more home computers than anyone else, then went under with the most advanced home computer on the market sitting in its warehouse.
Jack Tramiel founded the company in Toronto in 1954 to repair and sell typewriters. Calculators came next, and when the calculator price war hit, Commodore bought its own chip supplier, MOS Technology, in 1976. Owning both the processor and the fab let it cut prices in ways rivals simply couldn't match. The slogan was "Computers for the masses, not the classes."
The PET arrived in 1977, the VIC-20 became the first computer to sell a million units in 1980, and the Commodore 64 of 1982 is still the best-selling single computer model ever. Tramiel left in January 1984 and bought Atari's home computer division that summer. Commodore bought Amiga instead – and never quite worked out what to do with it. Bankruptcy came in April 1994.