[Arran]

Semiconductors are one of the big reasons Philco nearly went under in 1961 and were rescued from oblivion (temporarily, as it turned out) by a buyout from Ford.

Philco invented the surface barrier transistor, and pushed them heavily.

At the same time, Philco had diversified into a huge conglomerate, building consumer electronics, white goods (refrigerators, freezers, ovens, washers, dryers), and they also had a Government and Industrial Division which ended up being a huge monetary drain on the Corporation. Philco also dabbled in computers towards the end.

As John Wolkonowicz said so well in his Philco thesis, "Philco's dream was to become another RCA."

But I digress.

  RCA's dream to become RCA was a nightmare over the long run, the final nail in their coffin came later then Philco's though, but for many of the same reasons. I think that to some degree RCA copied Philco by going into the large appliance business in that they owned Whirlpool for a time. The diversification idea sucked in many companies at the time, and ruined just about as many, but such is to be expected when you stray off the path of what you know.
  If anything it would have been even more of a  financial gamble developing, manufacturing, and marketing solid state devices in the 1950s and 60s then it would be now, a lot of what was unknown then is well understood now. From what I read the rejection rate of newly produced transistors was extremely high up until the late 1950s, so the technology was not cheap, if you price out a transistor portable radio as compared to a tube one, circa 1956-57, the transistor ones were double what the tube ones were, an AC operated transistor set made absolutely no sense at all.
Regards
Arran