Trade Chat 1980s Pye Brochure

Interesting to see the overlap between the G11 and the KT3/K30.  I didn't realise this occurred as I left the Pye dealer I was working for in early 1980 when the G11 was still the only models they stocked.

I just assumed that the G11 finished to be replaced with the K30.  I notice the not so often seen 20" G11 wasn't in the Brochure it looks like they dropped that as soon as the KT3 came out.  A bit of a retrograde step to replace a slimline set with a 90 degree one? Maybe they realised that price was a bigger selling point than slimline ? Or maybe good old Joe public didn't notice or care that the new 20" set was deeper.

  I wonder what the difference in price was between a 22" Text G11 and a 22" Text K30?  and how long the duplication of models continued? Maybe G11 production has stopped but they had large stocks of unsold models? Pye were very good at having large unsold stocks...

I remember the 26" Txt printer "beambooster" sets being flogged off at the same price as a 22" text so long as you bought a few, this was when the K35 was being replaced with the K40. A local wholesaler ended up with a load I bought a few and found them slow sellers the main buyers were bookies and racing punters.  

I get the impression Prestel was expected to become a much bigger thing than it actually did.

Coming along around the same time as home computing probably made it a hard sell for domestic customers.

Posted by: @richardfrommarple

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I get the impression Prestel was expected to become a much bigger thing than it actually did.

Correct it was expected, at launch in 1979 it had over 100,000 pages, including access to online banking, online shopping and eventually e-mail to other users, to list but a few of its services. One might say we just weren't ready, and that for the most part would be true, however, like all good British inventions we failed to capitalise on it. In contrast, the French with their equivalent Minitel system made a success, only switching theirs off in 2012! Inevitably, though, the World Wide Web was the future, and the rest as they say is history.

 I would love to find a TV with Teletext & Prestel, but I suspect they're all long gone to landfill. They were hellishly expensive, and I don't think there were that many subscribers, (I believe it had 5000+) hence not many TVs about in the first place. One was offered for free over on UKVRRR, I believe a G11, I would have loved that to add to the museum. I believe it ended up in Cornwall with Stuart B.

A view of Viewdata from 1975, viewed on a GEC prototype viewdata set.

p.s. How many times can I insert "view" in one sentence. 🤣 

Postoffice Geezer

"Unlimited capacity for data, well only limited by the amount of critical endurance people have to look at a screen and operate a keyboard."

If only he knew,if only........

Posted by: @crustytv

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Posted by: @richardfrommarple

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I get the impression Prestel was expected to become a much bigger thing than it actually did.

Correct it was expected, at launch in 1979 it had over 100,000 pages, including access to online banking, online shopping and eventually e-mail to other users, to list but a few of its services. One might say we just weren't ready, and that for the most part would be true, however, like all good British inventions we failed to capitalise on it. In contrast, the French with their equivalent Minitel system made a success, only switching theirs off in 2012! Inevitably, though, the World Wide Web was the future, and the rest as they say is history.

 I would love to find a TV with Teletext & Prestel, but I suspect they're all long gone to landfill. They were hellishly expensive, and I don't think there were that many subscribers, (I believe it had 5000+) hence not many TVs about in the first place. One was offered for free over on UKVRRR, I believe a G11, I would have loved that to add to the museum. I believe it ended up in Cornwall with Stuart B.

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I heard the French government put a lot of money into subsidising Minitel to promote computer literacy, & it took longer for the internet to catch on in France due it it's success.