Amstrad PCW 8256
The PCW (“Personal Computer Word-processor”) 8256 offered consumers a very complete package for only a quarter of the price of the cheapest IBM PC on the market. Included in the price were: a monitor with the computer and a 3” floppy drive built in, a keyboard, printer, CP/M Plus operating system, Locoscript word processor, BASIC and Logo interpreter.
Amstrad PCW 8256
The PCW (“Personal Computer Word-processor”) 8256 offered consumers a very complete package for only a quarter of the price of the cheapest IBM PC on the market. Included in the price were: a monitor with the computer and a 3” floppy drive built in, a keyboard, printer, CP/M Plus operating system, Locoscript word processor, BASIC and Logo interpreter.
The marketing focused on ‘technology averse’ households, that had not yet made the leap to computers. A slogan for the advertisements was: “It’s more than a word processor for less than most typewriters”. Other characteristics of the system, like separate keys for copying, cutting and pasting and a user-friendly word processor, allowed users to easily get started with the system.
This strategy turned out to be a success as 700,000 units were sold within the first two years. Which gave Amstrad a 60% share of the UK home computer market and a 20% share in Europe as a whole.
