To follow up on the highly successful Atari 2600 video game console, Atari executives decided to break into the home computer market. Their first attempts resulted in the Atari 400 and 800 computer systems, so named for being originally designed with 4KB and 8KB of RAM, respectively. Despite excellent peripherals for the computers, such as a BASIC programmer kit, tape recorder and disk drives, Atari had difficulty competing with the Apple II, which was seen as a more "serious" computer. Since Atari was so well known for the 2600, many consumers believed the computers were simply over-priced and over-developed video game consoles. Atari lowered the price of the computers and expanded the 800 to include 48KB of RAM, but by that point it was too late to become a true challenger in the highly competitive personal computer market.
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