Founded in 1975 by Sirjang Lal Tandon, a mechanical engineer, Tandon Corporation was born as an American company dedicated to manufacturing disk drives and personal computers. Initially, the company specialized in the production of read/write heads for magnetic disks, an essential component in floppy disk drives at the time. Their competitive key was cost reduction through manufacturing in India, where wages were significantly lower than in the United States, allowing Tandon to offer products at competitive prices.
Innovation in diskettes: The rise of Tandon
By the late 1970s, Tandon developed direct equivalents to the disk drives manufactured by Shugart, one of its main competitors. Among their most notable innovations was the invention of DS/DD (double sided, double density) drives, which quickly became the company’s flagship product during the 1980s.
In 1979, Tandon launched the TM-100 floppy drive, a 5.25-inch model with support for 40 tracks, in contrast to Shugart’s SA-400 model with 35 tracks. This product was successful, securing contracts with major companies. One of the most significant agreements came in 1980 when Tandy Corporation equipped their TRS-80 Model III computer with TM-100 drives. However, the most lucrative contract came a year later when IBM selected Tandon as their exclusive supplier of floppy drives for their IBM PCs, making the company the largest independent manufacturer of disk drives for personal computers and word processors.
Expansion and challenges in the 1980s
As the personal computer market grew, Tandon diversified its offerings by introducing a line of hard drives in the 1980s. Despite their efforts, financial challenges persisted, exacerbated by intense competition from Japanese and Taiwanese manufacturers and a decline in computer sales in North America between 1984 and 1985.
In 1987, in an attempt to strengthen its position in the hard drive market, Tandon acquired Atasi Corporation for 5 million dollars in stocks, a company that offered hard drives with higher storage capacity, reaching 170 MB compared to Tandon’s 50 MB at that time. Despite these efforts, financial challenges continued.
In 1988, aiming to gain liquidity and refocus the business, Tandon sold its original data storage division to Western Digital for 80 million dollars. This marked the end of Tandon’s era as an independent disk drive manufacturer.
Transition to the PC market
Following the sale of its main business, Tandon attempted to reinvent itself as a major producer of personal computers. They hired high-level executives from companies like IBM in the hope that their experience would help reposition the company. By the late 1980s, 90% of Tandon’s PC sales came from Europe, a market where the company had a stronger presence compared to the United States.
One of their standout products was the Tandon PCX, launched in 1986, equipped with 256 KB of RAM, an 80-column display, two 360 KB floppy drives, and a 10 MB hard drive. The system ran MS-DOS and GW-BASIC, positioning it as an affordable solution for personal computer users.
The decline of Tandon
Despite efforts to reposition themselves, the company could not reverse its fortunes. By 1989, the price of their stocks had plummeted from a peak of 34.25 dollars in 1983 to just 0.50 dollars, reflecting the company’s dire financial situation. As competition in the PC and hard drive market intensified, Tandon couldn’t maintain its competitiveness or innovate at the pace of its rivals.
In conclusion, Tandon Corporation, which was once the largest independent producer of disk drives for personal computers, could not survive the tough competition and rapid technological innovations of the 1980s. The sale of their storage business to Western Digital marked the end of an era for the company, which couldn’t find the same success in the personal computer market. Tandon’s story serves as a reminder of how pioneering companies can be overtaken by the rapid pace of change in the technology industry.
David Carrero, co-founder of Stackscale, writes to us, remembering that his first computer was a Tandon with an Intel 80286 and one of the brand’s first color monitors, a great system back in 1990.