To understand the rarity, one must understand the market disaster. The Jangbu Ilsaek 1990 Portable launched at ₩3,900,000 KRW (approximately $5,500 USD in 1990, or over $13,000 today adjusted for inflation). For that price, a Korean business could buy three Daewoo desktops or two imported Toshiba laptops.
However, the fatal blow came from the Battery Gate of 1991. The portable used a lead-acid battery (like a car battery) that had a manufacturing flaw. After ten charge cycles, the battery would swell, often cracking the plastic chassis and, in nine documented cases, leaking acid onto the motherboard. Jangbu Corporation offered a recall, but by then, trust was destroyed. The entire portable division was shuttered by December 1991. Most unsold units were allegedly disassembled for parts or dumped in a landfill near Incheon. jangbu ilsaek 1990 portable
Jangbu Ilsaek (Korean: 장부일색) is a historically significant piece of software in the history of South Korean computing. Released in the late 1980s and widely used through the early 1990s, it was one of the first mass-market accounting packages designed to bring financial management to the nascent personal computer market in Korea. To understand the rarity, one must understand the
The most tragic theory. In April 1990, a delivery truck carrying the first 500 production units of the Jangbu Ilsaek was involved in an accident near the Han River. The truck's rear door opened, and the pallets of computers fell into a concrete construction site, where they were quickly buried and poured over. Unable to afford a second production run, Jangbu folded. To this day, construction crews near the Yongsan district occasionally joke about digging up "Jangbu gold." However, the fatal blow came from the Battery Gate of 1991
Because the real thing is so rare (likely zero units), fakes are abundant. Here is a quick checklist:
Two reasons.
