== Late to the market ==
Amstrad jumped into the microcomputer market in 1984, just in time to shake things up. It even happened after the [[MSX ]] Standard of 1983 which was thought at the time to be the end of the "cowboy" era of disparate and incompatible 8bit computers.
By the end of 1985, all the big names were already established in both 8-bit and the newer 16-bit systems, leaving no room for newcomers.