Somewhat off-topic, but when did ICO get the jazzy 3-letter symbol?
[Pointless trivia and namedropping below. But some may find it interesting.]
While I haven't followed Inacom lately, I was there at it's birth. Joe Inatome, a structural engineer in the Detroit area had written some engineering programs that he offered to other engineers through a time-sharing system. When the first personal computers came out (no, I am NOT talking PC or even Apple or EVEN CP/M...) the possibilities fascinated him, and he became an Imsai distributor.
Imsai sold kits. Joe set up one assembled Imsai, with a Model 33 teletype hooked up to it, and a copy of paper-tape Basic. (Guess who wrote that paper-tape Basic? Naw, it wasn't Yours Truely, but some kid named Gates... came from way out on the West Coast somewhere, along with those 'puters) You could come in and play with the computer, and if you liked it, you ordered a kit, and came and got it the next week. You could get soldering lessons in the store. You could also have them assemble them for you, and it wasn't unusual to walk in and see Joe or Rick slaving over a hot soldering iron. :) This was in a VERY tiny storefront in Madison Heights, Mi. and if I wasn't there on the opening day, I'm sure I was there during the opening week. :)
Joe's son Rick Inatome was a business student at Michigan State University at the time, and worked in his dad's store that first summer. Not sure if it was Joe or Rick, but one of them was the first speaker at a computer club (SEMCO) I co-founded in Detroit - both returned as speakers many times. Rick, in particular was a dynamic, enthused speaker and his visits were much anticipated.
The business was stated with a total of about $10,000, with several of Joe's friends and Rick's college buddies kicking in to buy $1,000 units. My guess is this was around 1974.
Although Inacomp (the name at the time) quickly had competition, they were clearly the dominent force in computer retailing in the Detroit area, and over a few years moved into larger and larger stores, finally building a huge (or seemed so at the time) store and warehouse in Troy, Mi. As the likes of ComputerLand moved in, Inacomp started to move outward, opening up branch stores of their own.
While I'm sure that Joe's contacts in the Detroit auto industry helped
a lot, Rick was a visionary - and something unusual - a visionary with a suit. :) Joe would comment on how amazed he was about what those little boxes could do (Joe's one indulgence was his "plotter room" - he had every kind of plotter set up - some people have classic car collections - Joe had his plotters! Rick, on the other hand could understand how much more they COULD do. It isn't often that a guy in a suit can hold a room full of computer geeks - Rick did it time and time again at our meetings.
(Actually, we were a mixed bag of computer geeks, small business owners wondering how they could apply these boxes to their businesses, and auto company managers and engineers that showed up because - at the time - we were the only place in town to learn about "micros" - one of our many meeting venues was at the Ford engineering center in Dearborn. BTW, our most "interesting" meeting place, and the one I will always associate with that club, was the WJBK TV studio, which WJBK engineer Keith Petersen - another co-founder of the club - arranged for. Keith's claim to fame in the industry was organizing what is now the OAK archive at oak.oakland.edu - originally done for the U.S. Army as the Simtel20 archive - the Army actually hired him to collect and organize shareware!)
Anyway, back to Inacom - they later merged with a Nebraska-based firm which doubled the size of the chain, and Joe and Rick stepped into the background.
OK, so, none of this has any bearing on or insight into ICO today, EXCEPT that Joe and Rick are, I beleive, still large shareholders.
Now, I suppose there's somebody here with an equally-fascinating Nebraska story. :) |
