What If the Acorn Electron a success in December 1982 ?

[michelvan]

What would happen if Acorn Computers manage to produce the Electron on time for December 1982 ? 

The Electron a low cost version of the BBC micro was  aimed on ZX Spectrum 
with 32k ram with cost around £199.

but got delay to march 1983 do Ferranti Semiconductor was unable to produce Custom ULA on Time 
missing the important Christmas sales of 1982 
from this the Electron never recover, Hit by the Video Game crash of 1984, follow introduction of first 16-bit Computers in 1985 on.

Had Acorn take another ULA manufacturer who could provide the ULA just on time 
how had this affected the British Computer market and Game industry ? 

Could have the Electron beaten the ZX spectrum and consolidate on the market as more important company ?
and follow this with the success with Archimedes  their 32bit RISK Computers in 1987 ?

[lordroel]

Mar 2, 2023 23:29:36 GMT michelvan said:

What would happen if Acorn Computers manage to produce the Electron on time for December 1982 ? 

The Electron a low cost version of the BBC micro was  aimed on ZX Spectrum 
with 32k ram with cost around £199.

but got delay to march 1983 do Ferranti Semiconductor was unable to produce Custom ULA on Time 
missing the important Christmas sales of 1982 
from this the Electron never recover, Hit by the Video Game crash of 1984, follow introduction of first 16-bit Computers in 1985 on.

Had Acorn take another ULA manufacturer who could provide the ULA just on time 
how had this affected the British Computer market and Game industry ? 

Could have the Electron beaten the ZX spectrum and consolidate on the market as more important company ?
and follow this with the success with Archimedes  their 32bit RISK Computers in 1987 ?

Looks good.

But can the British compete with the Americans regarding computers.

[michelvan]

Mar 3, 2023 12:20:33 GMT lordroel said:

But can the British compete with the Americans regarding computers.

Nope, this was low cost computer aimed to schoolchildren and students, who use the big brother of Electron, the BBC Micro in UK schools.
It main competitor were Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Dragon 32, Oric 1.

In USA was market dominated in 1982 by Apple II, Tandy TRS series, Atari.
The British try enter the US market but failed.

Then came Commodore (under Jack Tramiel) with C64 and start recklessly price war with all competitor offering C46 at £399 in 1983.

[stevep]

Mar 3, 2023 12:20:33 GMT lordroel said:

Mar 2, 2023 23:29:36 GMT michelvan said:

What would happen if Acorn Computers manage to produce the Electron on time for December 1982 ? 

The Electron a low cost version of the BBC micro was  aimed on ZX Spectrum 
with 32k ram with cost around £199.

but got delay to march 1983 do Ferranti Semiconductor was unable to produce Custom ULA on Time 
missing the important Christmas sales of 1982 
from this the Electron never recover, Hit by the Video Game crash of 1984, follow introduction of first 16-bit Computers in 1985 on.

Had Acorn take another ULA manufacturer who could provide the ULA just on time 
how had this affected the British Computer market and Game industry ? 

Could have the Electron beaten the ZX spectrum and consolidate on the market as more important company ?
and follow this with the success with Archimedes  their 32bit RISK Computers in 1987 ?

Looks good.

But can the British compete with the Americans regarding computers.

  Definitely not without the sort of government support that the US, Japan and the like gave their electronic industries.  Possibly with it although it would need a fairly substantial change in British management culture and neither that nor the government support are likely with Thatcher in power.  - It would be unlikely to work long term with say a pre-1979 Labour party but at least their likely to try and in the process keep the industry active and productive longer.  Best bet would be if you could avoid the so called neo-classical fanatics taking over the Tory party and having some sort of technocratic leader gain power in 1979 - assuming no earlier butterflies than them rather that Thatcher being Tory leader.

[michelvan]

Mar 3, 2023 13:58:20 GMT stevep said:

Definitely not without the sort of government support that the US, Japan and the like gave their electronic industries.  Possibly with it although it would need a fairly substantial change in British management culture and neither that nor the government support are likely with Thatcher in power.

i don't known about US, but Japan the computer industry was heavy supported by Government.
in Britain the computer industry is on they own, under Thatcher was It's sink or swim.

Ironic it was BBC who gave support to the Industry with BBC Computer Literacy Project, what let to Acorn BBC Micro.
Acorn hope to cash in with cheaper Electron who was compatible to BBC Micro in December 1982 (they failed)

Apple profit also from US school system that needed Computers, selling Apple II at favourably price.

[stevep]

Mar 3, 2023 14:13:22 GMT michelvan said:

Mar 3, 2023 13:58:20 GMT stevep said:

Definitely not without the sort of government support that the US, Japan and the like gave their electronic industries.  Possibly with it although it would need a fairly substantial change in British management culture and neither that nor the government support are likely with Thatcher in power.

i don't known about US, but Japan the computer industry was heavy supported by Government.
in Britain the computer industry is on they own, under Thatcher was It's sink or swim.

Ironic it was BBC who gave support to the Industry with BBC Computer Literacy Project, what let to Acorn BBC Micro.
Acorn hope to cash in with cheaper Electron who was compatible to BBC Micro in December 1982 (they failed)

Apple profit also from US school system that needed Computers, selling Apple II at favourably price.

  Very true.  For a short while I think the spectrum was selling more PCs than everybody else in the world.  We couldn't have kept that sort of lead but with some decent leadership we could have done a hell of a lot more and also boosted our own national productivity as well as having a significant educational boost.  Those were the days however when a lot of people still have dreams of a prosperous and successful Britain.

[michelvan]

Mar 3, 2023 15:10:56 GMT stevep said:

Those were the days however when a lot of people still have dreams of a prosperous and successful Britain.

They had the chance but either shoot in foot or had bad luck and timing (just like UK car Industry )

Clive Sinclair persist to build his computers so cheap as possible,
Also He ignore his engineer that explain were not ready or that would not work, follow by something that screaming Sinclair trow at there heads...
So get ZX Spectrum and QL those Microdrive instead working disk drive
Also reason why BBC Computer Literacy Project not take the ZX, because not match any points of there needed specification.

That reason Acorn got BBC Micro and not Sinclair Research, Dragon or Oric...
But Acorn had bad luck with Electron who was not ready for important Christmas sales of 1982

Then happen two things that shake the industry to the core.
1983 came Commodore 64 and start world wide price war.
1984 happen Video Game industry crash by supersaturate market with computers and bad games.
This was down fall of several companies, Atari got sold, Jack Tramiel trow out Commodore, follow by Steven Jobs at Apple later...
also Clive Sinclair fell deep, Failure of QL, his electric car and other issue, Sinclair Research sold the the Spectrum range and "Sinclair" brand in 1986
Acorn computer survived by undergoing refinancing, working on RISK CPU
1986 Amstrad start with CPC and Sinclair computers, Dragon and Oric went insolvency

That Time frame 1980 to December 1982 was vital for survival of British computer industry.
Sinclair Research was unable produce sufficient ZX spectrums to gain momentum.
ironic Acorn had sufficient Electrons but too late.

in 1983 start Commodore 64 to dominated the low-end computer market, on those market were British could expands like European market.
(france was special case) Germany was in hand of Commodore international, millions C64 were sold here.