A story of a housewife disappeared from the front stage after entering the PC industry and having a great success

ByHartwig HKD

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1977 were held in San FranciscoFirst West Coast Computer Faireso"Apple IIWe announced. However, on the same day that Apple II was announced, two women, Roar Harp and Carroll Eli in the same San Francisco, announced the same family home PC as AppleII and succeeded in the PC industry to so many people It is a fact unknown.

How Two Bored 1970s Housewives Helped Create The PC Industry | Fast Company | Business + Innovation
http://www.fastcompany.com/3047428/how-two-bored-1970s-housewives-helped-create-the-pc-industry

The two housewives announced is a PC called "Vector 1" developed by Roa's husband Bob Harp. The name of Vector 1 was taken from the company "Vector Graphic", which was jointly owned by Roa and Carol. Vector Graphic became one of the most famous PC makers in the 1970s due to the success of Vector 1, but as IBM entered the market for home computers by pulling IBM PC, it subsequently declined and declined I disappeared from the stage. Although it is Vector Graphic who went bankrupt without following the rapid growth of the PC industry, there are many interesting things in the story where two housewives who were housewives entered business and the success got the success though.

The harp came to California in the early 1970s. The family was a typical and happy family living in the suburbs, but Loa who likes to challenge everything with curiosity strongly will become bored with the life as a full-time housewife. Lore, who was dying in her life as if she could not put up with his life of being at home, later said that she and Carol of the neighbor who had the same feelings as herself, "Let's do something productive" He said he decided to put on new business.


At first I tried to start a travel agency, but it was canceled due to the need for a license. Two people who were looking for something they could not do, there was one proposal from Roar's husband Bob.

Early in 1970, even a small one was a computer that was only as big as a fridge and the price was expensive, but for personal computers kitAltair 8800"Was released and recorded an explosive hit. Bob was also one who bought Altair 8800, but when I disassemble Altair 8800 with interest, I find that the installed memory board can not be said to be "wonderful" at all. After discovering this, Bob successfully developed a memory board perfect for Altair 8800 by himself, taking advantage of his physics acquiring a degree in physics at Stanford University and MIT.


And Bob proposed "to develop and sell developed memory board?" To his wife Roar. However, both Lore and Elli know almost no knowledge about computers. So Bob decided to take two people to a computer show held locally to make up for their knowledge. They took a look at the computer that was on display and were convinced that Bob's memory board was better than the other products. We contract with a supplier who supplies parts of the memory board, the two will be sunny and launch Vector Graphics and start selling the memory board.

Although sales were small at first at the time of release, sales were increased when Ellie in charge of marketing posted advertisements in mail order magazines. Based on the funds obtained by selling the memory board, Bob develops and sells another memory board and gets a high reputation from computer lovers in the United States. Initially it was not possible to borrow a proper office, the harp couple's home was the workplace, they tested the memory board in the living room and packed the products in the shower room.


As a result of the successful sale of the memory board, the two developed not only the memory board, but also the system which introduced it, that is, the computer development, Bob developed "Vector 1" with two buttons. Vector 1 is an Intel 8080A-based computer, and a preassembled set is available for $ 849 (about 400,000 yen at that rate). Carol of marketing contracts with multiple distributors who will later have an international sales network. After that, the dealer who contracted with Vector Graphic seems to have become the company's trump card at the home computer market where competition has intensified.

Vector 1 is not only excellent as a product, but also attracts the attention of the media even if its CEO is a pretty rare woman at that time. The CEO's Lore puts full exposure on media such as magazines and television, and the recognition of Vector Graphic is getting higher at a stroke.


However, it was the Apple II that was announced at the same time, which stopped in front of Vector Graphic which was sailing smoothly. Vector Graphic was not initially releasing Apple II as "a toy", but after a few years from the launch, computer trends will purchase parts themselves and assemble themselves into an all-in-one type It seems that it began to feel a threat gradually as a result of starting to migrate.

While Vector 1 was an expensive high-end product, Apple II was an inexpensive low-end product and the world's first spreadsheet software "VisiCalc"Was released on a disk base operating on Apple II also affected, and dark clouds began to appear on the sales of Vector 1.

In addition, as soon as IBM makes a "IBM PCIt was released in 1981. One year ago IBM PC was released, Vector Graphic seems to have received an offer from IBM "We do not become OEM of our company?" CEO Loa refused this. In addition, IBM contracted secretly with several software vendors that had contracts with Vector Graphic, and was working to make software running on the Vector series work even on IBM PCs.

Bob recalls that "It was more awesome to see that IBM intends to monopolize the computer software market." Bob, who felt IBM's threat, advised officers of Vector Graphic "We must develop products that are compatible with IBM's PC to survive in the market." Although Board executives including Roar knew that IBM would be a big hurd when entering the computer market, it would seem like abandoning existing users to abandon the Vector series and move to a new platform as Bob's I did not listen to advice.

Bob, which complained that his opinion was not accepted, will be fired in 1981. Losing an engineer who has been involved in development since entrepreneurial activity seems to have hurt a lot for Vector Graphic.

And when the IBM PC with MS - DOS of Microsoft was released, users of the Vector series quickly flowed to the models compatible with the IBM PC and the same product. In response to this situation, Vector Graphic developed a product that is compatible with MS-DOS and showed up to IBM, but it was too late to make a decision.

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After that, CEO Loa divorced Bob and remarried to another man and retired from the position of CEO on this occasion. Vector Graphic, who lost Bob, who was manager and loyal engineer Roa, could not revive and announced bankruptcy in 1987. It has been 11 years since its establishment, completely disappearing from the PC industry. Ironically, Apple, which released Apple II at the same time as Vector 1, has grown to become one of the leading companies in the IT industry as of 2015.