Comments by "AQuietNight" (@AQuietNight) on "Technology Connections" channel.

  1. The CED system didn't sink RCA but the company had several years of lackluster earnings with some parts of the company becoming more valuable than the company as a whole. When Thornton Bradshaw was brought in to replace Griffith, many employees realized they weren't going to be retiring from RCA (or GE). Bradshaw prepared the body for burial. GE was lusting after the National Broadcasting Company and RCA's defense business so a deal was struck. GE pretty much sold off everything but the 2 mentioned divisions. As GE itself was getting out of consumer electronics, they sold off that portion of the business (along with their own consumer electronics business) to Thompson Electronics . RCA Victor Records went to BMG. Semiconductors went to Fairchild. One may forget but in the 1970's and 1980's the Japanese were a buzz saw in consumer electronics with their lower manufacturing costs. American companies could not compete and many left the field altogether. Now the Japanese companies are dealing with the buzz saw called China, having a great deal of difficulty competing with China's lower costs.
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  2. As a former employee of RCA I just want to say this: Screw you. The Numitron allowed RCA to use it's electron tube equipment. The filaments and the back ground were reconfigured vacuum tube parts. The gray material as the background were used for plate structures in vacuum tubes. This method would allow RCA to sell the devices at a lower cost as they were buying this material in volume and which would allow RCA to get more use out of already paid for manufacturing equipment.
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  3. Robert Sarnoff was everything his dad was not. The CED failure was probably not as bad as the failure of the computer division. David Sarnoff was happy to let the computer division grow slow but steady and RCA developed a base of customers pleased with the computers RCA produced. This approach allowed RCA to compete with IBM. Robert Sarnoff came from the go-go generation of businessman where things had to happen fast and he wanted RCA's future tied into computers (more glamorous) and put the division into high gear, selling more computers faster than the company could support. The end result was unhappy customers and a tarnished image. David Sarnoff was a technology guy and loved the business. Robert Sarnoff was just another business type where being Chairman of a business was more important than the work being done. When the CED was released the view was nice. Not thrilling, but nice. It worked fairly decently, was priced reasonably but wasn't seen as some exciting new technology. Few had to have a CED player. With the failure of the CED system RCA was never really seen as a leader in consumer electronics again. Many products became "Me too". You want a VHS machine? Yea, we have one. You want a radio? We got one of those too. You want a stereo? Yea, we got one. No product showed any leadership, just more of the same rebranded Japanese stuff. RCA still did show incredible leadership in industrial electronics and many devices and designs they pioneered are still in use today. But to the general public, RCA sort of disappeared.
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