IBM launched the PCjr, its long-awaited attempt to crack the booming home computer market dominated by Commodore and Apple. Despite enormous pre-launch hype, the machine's cramped rubber-chiclet keyboard, limited expansion, and incompatibility with much IBM PC software drew withering reviews. IBM discontinued it within eighteen months, a rare and costly stumble for the company during its 1980s dominance.
IBM entered the home computer race riding the enormous credibility of its business-standard IBM PC, launched in 1981, and analysts predicted the PCjr would flatten smaller competitors on brand strength alone. Retailers reportedly received hundreds of thousands of pre-orders sight unseen, and the company invested heavily in marketing, including a Charlie Chaplin-inspired advertising campaign meant to soften IBM's corporate image for home buyers.
The machine that arrived on shelves disappointed almost immediately. Its keyboard, made of small, closely spaced rubber keys nicknamed 'Chiclet' keys, made touch-typing nearly impossible and became an instant punchline in the tech press. Worse, cost-cutting decisions left it unable to run a meaningful chunk of the software library that had made the full-size IBM PC a business essential, undermining the exact selling point that was supposed to give it an edge.
IBM scrambled to fix the keyboard and boost memory in a revised model, but the damage to its reputation was done. The company killed the PCjr in March 1985, less than a year after this launch, writing off tens of millions of dollars. It remains a textbook case study in how even a dominant company can misjudge a market it thinks it already owns.