![]() ![]() While the radio was praised for design aesthetics, novelty and small size, because of the cost cutting measures, the sensitivity and sound quality were behind the established vacuum tube based competitors, and reviews were typically adverse. One year after the TR-1 release, sales approached 100,000 units. keep the price down to $49.95, ($510 in 2021), which was a significant amount of money for such a small, untried object. Although this severely reduced audio output volume, it let I.D.E.A. The Regency TR-1 circuitry was refined from the Texas Instruments drawings, reducing the number of parts, including two expensive transistors. The Regency Division of I.D.E.A announced the TR-1 on October 18, 1954, and put it on sale in November 1954. ![]() Ed Tudor, the president of Industrial Development Engineering Associates, (I.D.E.A), a builder of home antenna boosters, jumped at the opportunity to manufacture the TR-1, predicting sales of the transistor radios would be "20 million radios in three years." No major radio maker, including RCA, Philco, and Emerson, was interested. In May 1954, Texas Instruments, previously a producer of instrumentation for the oil industry and locating devices for the US Navy, was looking for an established radio manufacturer to develop and market a radio using their transistors. Surviving specimens are sought out by collectors. Previously, transistors had only been used in military or industrial applications, and the TR-1 demonstrated their utility for consumer electronics, offering a prescient glimpse of a future full of small, convenient hand-held devices that would develop into calculators, mobile phones, tablets and the like. Despite mediocre performance, about 150,000 units were sold, due to the novelty of its small size and portability. The Regency TR-1 was the first commercially manufactured transistor radio, introduced in 1954. 1954 commercial transistor radio Regency TR-1 transistor radio ![]()
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