On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 06:13:24PM +0100, Thomas Harte wrote: > Oh, I don't know. Surely Sinclair's model works only if you can > establish yourself as the supplier of a proprietary computer aimed at > the price conscious end of the market? I don't see how that could > compete once a growing body of manufacturers were transferring to a > PC-style open architecture.
You say "open architecture", but it wasn't supposed to be open when released. Most of the components could be easily copied, however, and Compaq reverse-engineered the IBM BIOS to produce their own 100% compatible machine. How would Sir Clive have fared if the QL had been a success and other manufacturers had started putting out copies of it? imc
