Tandon Computer Corp is pulling out all the stops to ensure that the UK supply backlog of its AT-compatible Personal Computer, the PCA, is cleared in time for this week’s Which Computer? Show. President Chuck Peddle, based in Chatsworth, California, says that the recent shortage of PCAs in Europe and the US was down to a shortage of power supplies and a rapidly expanding market where everyone is a little short, including IBM. Tandon recently admitted that it was looking to raise $30m, but Peddle says that despite wild rumours that were being circulated by UK journalists last week, there is no danger of the company going out of business. To back the point up, he confirms that the acquisition of Atasi Corp is going ahead as planned. Tandon UK head James Minotto says that Tandon Europe is profitable, and that the UK operating at a profit – will do close to UKP36m this calendar year, up from UKP13m in 1986. Using figures from London-based microcomputer research and consultancy outfit Context, Minotto, like Peddle, claims second place in the AT market. Context’s September to November report gave the PCA 11.9% by volume and 7.8% by value of 80286-based sales, just ahead of Apricot’s Xen-i which had 10% by volume and the same 7.8% by value, but a long way behind IBM’s AT which had 44.3% by volume and 50.1% by value. At its 80386-based products launch on Thursday, Apricot claimed 41% of the AT-compatible market way ahead of Olivetti and Compaq.
