Chapter 5 - Data Communications: Market Competition 1969-1972
5.10 Codex and the 9600: 1971
Codex faired better than most with a 126% increase in sales to $2.5 million, largely on the back of the 4800, while losses were commensurably cut by a third to $2.0 million. In October, just after the close of the fiscal year, Codex introduced the QAM-based 9600, the long awaited successor to the AE-96, priced at $11,500. The QAM technology gave Codex a significant advantage in the market as Pugh explains:
When we came out with the AE-96, which was a suppressed carrier, single side band modulation, a lot of people moved in and copied that, which was a mistake for them, because we had the QAM modem on the drawing boards. And about the time that Milgo came out with a single side band machine, AT&T came out with a single side band machine, and we had then announced our 9600, which was a QAM machine. We had the market all to ourselves for several years because it took them that long to catch up. That modem lasted for four or five years, and it was a marketing game. The 9600 became an instant hit!
Codex had cleared a major hurdle by successfully innovating its second-generation 9600 bps modem technology.