The humbling of Amstrad
Article Abstract:
Amstrad, the UK consumer electronics firm, has seen its share of the UK market in PCs decline drastically since 1989 due to a marketing blunder. Amstrad made its name by supplying cheap PCs to the home market. The company was not a manufacturer that developed its own technology, but sourced its components from many manufacturers in the Far East, Japan, and Korea, seeking the lowest prices. Amstrad is a 'late-cycle' PC manufacturer that assembled existing components from other sources into its own package, typically coming into a technology late in its life cycle. Amstrad attempted to enter the high end of the market with a high-performance business computer, but a global shortage of DRAM chips led to a delay in the computer's introduction. The malfunctioning of the product's hard disk, which had been supplied by a Far East source, led to a recall of the computer, shattering Amstrad's reputation for reliability. Amstrad's share of the UK PC market tumbled from 11.3% in spring of 1989 to 1.9% by March 1990.
Publication Name: International Management
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0020-7888
Year: 1990
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Alan Sugar shoots for the stars
Article Abstract:
Armstad Electronics PLC founder Alan Michael Sugar has helped to guide the company into becoming a rising star in the European personal computer (PC) market. The company earned 625 million pounds sterling in sales in financial year 1988. Armstad is now embarking on a project with Rupert Murdoch's direct broadcast satellite (DBS) Sky Television company in which Amstrad will manufacture inexpensively priced satellite dishes and decoders. The market for DBS is uncertain in Europe, but Amstrad will carry little risk since the bulk of its products are sub-contracted out to Asian countries where labor costs are low, and the company does not maintain factories. Low cost has been the pinnacle of Amstrad's success in the PC market, but absence of an integrated system of production has its downside as the company now faces delays in filling orders for its new PC2000 computers.
Publication Name: International Management
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0020-7888
Year: 1989
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The London street trader who would like to be as big as Sony
Article Abstract:
Alan Sugar, the founder and chief executive of Amstrad Consumer Electronics, is planning to market consumer electronics goods in the U.S. Amstrad, headquartered in London, has a stock market value of $966 million, of which $437 million belongs to Sugar. The history of the company is briefly related; Amstrad has grown from a car accessories and plastic turntable lid manufacturer into the successful maker of such products as a computerized word processor replete with monitor, disc drive and printer for $612, retail. Sugar claims his company's products are cheap, functional and easy to operate. In 1985, Amstrad Consumer Electronics PLC posted profits of $21.5 million on sales of $208.8 million
Publication Name: International Management
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 0020-7888
Year: 1986
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