Amstrad
Amstrad is a manufacturer of
electronics based in
Brentwood in
Essex,
England and founded in 1968 by Sir
Alan Michael Sugar in the
UK. The name is a contraction of
Alan
Michael
Sugar
Trading. It was listed on the
London Stock Exchange in 1980, and is still listed today. During the late 1980s, Amstrad had approx. 25% market share in the computing industry in
Europe. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing
Sky TV interactive boxes.
1960s and 1970s
Amstrad was founded in 1968 by its current Chairman and CEO,
Alan Sugar. Amstrad entered the market in the field of consumer electronics. During the 1970s they were at the forefront of low-priced hi-fi, TV and
car stereo cassette technologies. Lower prices were achieved by
injection moulding plastic hi-fi turntable covers, undercutting competitors who used the
vacuum forming process. Amstrad expanded to the production of
audio amplifiers and
tuners.
1980s
In 1980, Amstrad went public trading on the
London Stock Exchange, and doubled in size each year during the early '80s. Amstrad began marketing their own
personal computers in an attempt to capture the market from
Commodore and
Sinclair, with the
Amstrad CPC 464 in 1984. The Amstrad CPC 464
home computer range was launched in the
UK,
France,
Australia and
Germany. It was followed by the
CPC 664 and
CPC 6128 models. "Plus" variants later in the products lives increased their functionality slightly, while building in compatibility with the
GX4000, Amstrad's short-lived foray into the video gaming world.
In 1985, the business-oriented
Amstrad PCW range was introduced, which were principally
word processors running the
CP/M operating system and the
LocoScript word processing program. The "Amsoft" division of Amstrad was set up to provide in-house software and consumables. Amstrad briefly entered the
video game console business with the GX4000 based on the CPC Plus hardware which failed to catch on.
|
The ZX Spectrum +2. This was the first new Spectrum model released by Amstrad after their purchase of the range. |
On
7 April 1986 Amstrad announced it had bought from
Sinclair Research "...the worldwide rights to sell and manufacture all existing and future Sinclair computers and computer products, together with the Sinclair brand name and those intellectual property rights where they relate to computers and computer related products." [
1] which included the
ZX Spectrum, for £5 million. Amstrad launched three new variants of the Spectrum: The +2, based on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ 128K, with a built-in
tape drive (like the CPC 464); the +3, with a built-in
floppy disk drive (similar to the CPC 664 and 6128), taking the 3" disks that many Amstrad machines used, and a completely new motherboard; and the +2A/+2B, using the +3 motherboard in a +2 case with tape drive.
The company produced a range of affordable
MS-DOS-based, and later
Windows-based
personal computers, the first of which was the
PC-1512 at £399 in 1986. It was a success, capturing more than 25% of the European computer market. A year later, in 1987, the
Amstrad PCW 8512 was released as a computer dedicated to
word processing, it was priced at £499. In 1988 Amstrad attempted to make the first affordable portable
personal computer with the
PPC 512 / 640, introduced a year before the
Macintosh Portable, at 8MHz it ran
MS-DOS and
GEM with a variant of the
Color Graphics Adaptor (CGA) video card that allowed GEM to display sixteen-color graphics.
1990s - Present
In the early-1990s Amstrad began to focus on portable computers rather than
desktop computers. In 1990, Amstrad tried to enter the gaming market with the
Amstrad GX4000, similar to what
Commodore did at the same time with the
C64 and the
C64 GS. The console was a commercial failure, becoming less popular because it used 8-bit technology unlike the 16-bit
Sega Megadrive and
Super Nintendo. In 1993 Amstrad released the
PenPad, a
PDA similar to the
Apple Newton, and released only weeks before it. It was a commercial failure, and had several technical and usability problems. It lacked most features that the
Apple Newton included, but had a lower price at $450.
As Amstrad began to concentrate less on computers and more in communication, they purchased several
telecommunications businesses including
Betacom,
Dancall Telecom,
Viglen Computers and
Dataflex Design Communications during the early 1990s. Amstrad has been a major supplier of
set top boxes to UK
satellite TV provider
Sky since its launch in 1989. Amstrad was key to the introduction of Sky, as it was the only manufacturer producing receiver boxes and dishes at the system's launch, and has continued to manufacture set top boxes for Sky, from analogue to digital and now including Sky's
Sky+ digital video recorder.
In 1997, Amstrad supplied set top boxes to
Australian broadcaster
Foxtel, and in 2004 to
Italian broadcaster
Sky Italia. In 2000, Amstrad released the first of its combined
telephony and
e-mail devices, called the
e-m@iler. This was followed by the
e-m@ilerplus in 2002, and the
E3 Videophone in 2004. Amstrad has also produced a variety of home entertainment products over their history, including ,
televisions,
VCRs, and
DVD players. Following the success of the UK version of the TV series
The Apprentice Amstrad has also started producing
animatronic Alan Sugar heads.
* Amstrad CPC464
* Amstrad PC1512 (Nec V30 CPU, 6MHz, 512Kb RAM, CGA/Plantronics Graphics) - Marketed in the United States as the PC5120
* Amstrad PC1640 (Nec V30 CPU, 6MHz, 640Kb RAM, EGA Color Graphics) - Marketed in the United States as the PC6400
* Amstrad PCW8512
* Amstrad PCW9512
* Amstrad PC2086 (Nec V30 CPU, 8MHz, 640Kb RAM, VGA Graphics) launched 1989
* Amstrad PC2286 (Intel 80286 CPU, 12.5MHz, 1Mb RAM, VGA Graphics) launched 1989
* Amstrad PC2386 (Intel 80386DX CPU, 20MHz, 4Mb RAM, VGA Graphics) launched 1989Due to a problem with the on-board Seagate hard drive controllers which shipped with the Amstrad PC2386, these had to be recalled and fitted with Western Digital controllers on one of the four available ISA explansion slots. Amstrad sued but following bad press over problems with data corruption and crashing Amstrad lost its lead in the European PC market despite the prompt recall of affected computers.
* David Thomas,
Alan Sugar - the Amstrad Story (1991), paperback ISBN 0330319000.
*
Amstrad 1640*
Amstrad Action* Amstrad NC
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Amstrad NC150**
Amstrad NC200**
Amstrad NC100*
Amstrad official website*
Amstrad launches home videophone*
FUD and Amstrad*
The Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource
