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=== Price wars ===
[[Bowmar Instrument Corporation]] introduced the "Bowmar Brain", a four-function pocket calculator, in September 1971 and the $179 calculator sold over 500,000 copies in the first year. Bowmar then developed the "901B" calculator that was priced at $120.<ref name = "Schnaars 1997">{{cite book | last = Schnaars | first = Steven P. | title = Marketing Strategy: Customers And Competition | publisher = Simon and Schuster | year = 1997 | page = 48 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vvfmcTAGdloC&pg=PA48 | isbn = 978-0-684-83191-6}}</ref> In September 1972, [[Texas Instruments]] (TI) introduced the TI-2500 portable four-function calculator that also sold for $120.<ref name = "Computer 1972">{{cite journal | title = New Products | journal = Computer | volume = 5 | issue = 6 | pages =59–63 | publisher = IEEE | date = November 1972 | doi = 10.1109/C-M.1972.216999 | quote = The TI-2500 portable electronic calculator is a four-function, full-floating decimal-point unit with an eight-digit light emitting-diode display. With a suggested retail price of under $120, the TI-2500 calculator is rechargeable and capable of portable or ac operation.}} The calculator was previewed in June 1972 and formally released on September 21, 1972</ref> The 901B and the TI-2500 both used the TI TMS0100 family of "calculator-on-a-chip" integrated circuit. TI was now directly competing with their IC customers. Other semiconductor companies such as National Semiconductor and Rockwell began selling calculators. [[Commodore International|Commodore Business Machines]] and other office equipment companies also got into the market. A frenzied price war started. By early 1974, Ed Roberts found he could purchase a calculator in a retail store for less than his cost of materials. The larger companies could sell below cost to win market share. Bowmar lost $20 million in 1974 and filed for bankruptcy.<ref name = "NY Times Feb 1975">{{Cite news | last = Smith | first = William D. | title = Bowmar Will Ask Reorganization | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 55 | date = February 11, 1975}}</ref> Commodore acquired their IC supplier, [[MOS Technology]]. Texas Instruments won the price war but their calculator division lost $16 million in 1975.<ref>{{
To compete in this market, Roberts needed more capital. He took MITS public in November 1973 with a stock offering of 500,000 shares at $1 each. The [[1973 oil crisis]] caused a stock market downturn and MITS was only able to sell 250,000 shares.{{sfnp|Mims|1986|pages=40–41}} This allowed MITS to pay off the existing debt, but did not allow for any expansion. Roberts had developed several test equipment products such as a Waveform Generator and a Digital Voltmeter so he attempted to appeal to kit builders again by featuring the test equipment and digital clocks in the advertisements, instead of calculators. MITS was losing money, and by July 1974, the full page prominent ads were replaced with quarter-page ads in the back of the magazine.<ref name="RE July 1973">{{cite magazine | title = It's About Time |magazine= Radio-Electronics | volume = 45 | issue = 7 | page =75 | date = July 1974}} A quarter-page advertisement for the MITS DC100 clock/timer. Kit $79.95, assembled $99.95</ref>
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