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Amstrad

Amstrad plc

<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;">Amstrad:Amstrad logo</td></tr>

Type plc (LSE:AMT)
Founded UK (1968)
Headquarters Brentwood, Essex, England

<tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Alan Sugar, Founder & Chairman
Simon Sugar, Commercial Director</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Electronics</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Revenue</th><td>Amstrad:Green Arrow Up.svg £102.51 million GBP (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Operating income</th><td>Amstrad:Green Arrow Up.svg £26 million GBP (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Net income</th><td>Amstrad:Green Arrow Up.svg £17.90 million GBP (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Employees</th><td>85 (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>www.amstrad.com</td></tr>

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.


Contents

History

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

Amstrad:Amstrad CPC 464 Computer
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Amstrad CPC 464 Computer

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 home computers in an attempt to capture the market from Commodore and Sinclair, with the Amstrad CPC range in 1984. The CPC 464 was launched in the UK, France, Australia, Germany and Italy. It was followed by the CPC 664 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.

Amstrad:The ZX Spectrum +2. This was the first new Spectrum model released by Amstrad after their purchase of the range.
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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. This included Sinclair's unsold stock of Sinclair QLs and Spectrums. Amstrad made more than £5 million on selling these surplus machines alone. Amstrad launched two new variants of the Spectrum: the ZX Spectrum +2, based on the ZX Spectrum 128, with a built-in tape drive (like the CPC 464) and, the following year, the ZX Spectrum +3, with a built-in floppy disk drive (similar to the CPC 664 and 6128), taking the 3" disks that many Amstrad machines used.

The company produced a range of affordable MS-DOS-based, and later Windows-based personal computers, the first of which was the PC1512 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. It ran MS-DOS at 8MHz and its built-in screen could emulate the Monochrome Display Adapter or Color Graphics Adapter. Amstrad's final (and ill-fated) attempts to exploit the Sinclair brand were based on the company's own PCs; a compact desktop PC derived from the PPC 512, branded as the Sinclair PC200, and the PC1512 rebadged as the Sinclair PC500.

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 Mega Drive 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 PLC was wound up, its shares being split into Viglen and Betacom instead. Betacom PLC was then renamed Amstrad PLC.

The same year, 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’s UK e-m@iler business is operated through a separate company, Amserve Ltd which is 89.8% owned by Amstrad and 10.2% owned by Dixon’s plc.

Amstrad has also produced a variety of home entertainment products over their history, including hi-fis, 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.

Computer product lines

Home computers

Word processors

Notepad computers

PC compatibles

References

See also

Categories


Companies established in 1968 | Home computer hardware companies | Electronics companies of the United Kingdom | Computer companies of the United Kingdom | Brentwood | Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange

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