Having restored more modern HP and Tek Analyzers, I must, as a Tek afficionado admit that Tek
was never able to fully compete with HP. Sure the 492 and some later models including 275x
offers useable performance but eventually, Tek gave up and left the Spectrum Analyzer market
completely around 1990.
I know that this topic is old but this simply isn't true.
Tektronix did not leave the spectrum analyzer market at all around 1990 and in fact went on to make some very fine and high-performance units which were at least as good and in some ways better than their HP counterparts.
They also partnered with Advantest for a bit. Today, Tektronix is still producing and selling spectrum analyzers including some very good USB units.
My daily bench user is a tricked-out Tek 2712 which has a 1998 production date written inside along with personal signatures from the team which assembled & tested my unit. This 2712 has been trouble free and I am the 2nd owner. It spent its former life as a test instrument for a major TV broadcasting company.
So I wouldn't say that Tektronix couldn't compete with HP. Its just that good or bad, HP became the Harley-Davidson of spectrum analyzers.