The transistor was the ideal building block for a portable radio for consumers.

I used my paper route money to buy an Emerson portable transistor radio:

This is not my radio, but mine looked a lot like this. Note that it was an eight transistor model. The number of transistors was a key selling point. I do not recall the price, but I imagine that it cost on the order of $50. According the the inflation calculator that is over $400 in 2026 dollars - the price of a modest iPad. It came with a faux leather carrying case…‘cause it was heavy..