Amstrad PCW - Impact On The Computer Market

Impact On The Computer Market

In 1986 John Whitehead described the Amstrad PCW as "the bargain of the decade", and technology writer Gordon Laing said in 2007, "It represented fantastic value at a time when an IBM compatible or a Mac would cost a comparative fortune." At its United Kingdom launch in September 1985, the basic PCW model was priced at £399 plus value added tax, which included a printer, word processor program, the CP/M operating system and associated utilities, and a BASIC interpreter. Software vendors quickly made a wide range of additional applications available, including accounting, spreadsheet and database programs, so that the system was able to support most of the requirements of a home or small business.

Shortly afterwards the Tandy 1000 was introduced in the UK with the MS-DOS operating system and a similar suite of business applications, and became the only other personal computer system available for less than £1,000 in Britain. At the time the cheapest complete systems from Apricot Computers cost under £2,000 and the cheapest IBM PC system cost £2,400. Although competitors' systems generally had more sophisticated features, including colour monitors, Whitehead thought the Amstrad PCW offered the best value for money.

In the USA the PCW was launched at a price of $799, and its competitors were initially the Magnavox Videowriter and Smith Corona PWP, two word processing systems whose prices also included a screen, keyboard and printer. The magazine Popular Science thought that the PCW could not compete as a general-purpose computer, because its use of non-standard 3-inch floppy disk drives and the rather old CP/M operating system would restrict the range of software available from expanding beyond the spreadsheet, typing tutor and cheque book balancing programs already on sale. However the magazine predicted that the PCW's large screen and easy-to-use word processing software would make it a formidable competitor for dedicated word processors in the home and business markets. The system was sold in the USA via major stores, business equipment shops and electronics retailers.

The PCW redefined the idea of "best value" in computers by concentrating on reducing the price, which totally disrupted the personal computer market. The low price encouraged home users to trade up from simpler systems like the Sinclair Spectrum, whose sales had passed their peak. According to Personal Computer World, the PCW "got the technophobes using computers". In the first two years over 700,000 PCWs were sold, gaining 60% of the UK home computer market, and 20% of the European personal computer market, second only to IBM's 33.3% share. Having gained credibility as computer supplier, Amstrad launched IBM-compatible PCs, once again focussing on low prices, with its PC1512 surpassing the IBM PC on performance and beating even the Taiwanese clones on price. Amstrad became the dominant British personal computer company, buying all the designs, marketing rights and product stocks of Sinclair Research Ltd's computer division in April 1986, while Apricot later sold its manufacturing assets to Mitsubishi and became a software company.

In the PCW's heyday the magazines 8000 Plus (later called PCW Plus) and PCW Today were published specifically for PCW users. In addition to the usual product reviews and technical advice, they featured other content such as articles by science fiction writer and software developer Dave Langford on his experiences of using the PCW.

When the PCW line was retired in 1998, 8 million machines had been sold. The Daily Telegraph estimated that 100,000 were still in use in the UK, and said that the reliability of the PCW's hardware and software and the range of independently-produced add-on software for its word processing program were factors in its continued popularity. Laing says the PCW line's downfall was that "proper PCs became affordable". IBM, Compaq and other vendors of more expensive computers had reduced prices drastically in an attempt to increase demand during the recession of the early 1990s. In 1993 the PCW still cost under £390 while a PC system with a printer and word processing software cost over £1,000. However after adjustment for inflation the retail price of a multimedia IBM-compatible PC in 1997 was about 11% more than that of a PCW 8256 in 1985, and many home PCs were cast-offs, sometimes costing as little as £50, from large organisations that had upgraded their systems.

Users of Windows, Unix or Mac OS X systems who wish to run programs that were developed for the PCW 8256, 8512, 9256, 9512 and 9512+ can use an emulator called "Joyce". There is also another one only for Windows called "CP/M Box".