Martin Banks, Personal Computer World 09/82 - checked

September 1982

I must admit that I am really quite glad that I've found out. I am pleased that it is official after all this time. I had suspected of course for a while that it might be the case, you know, for there have been signs around for the perceptive to see. But no: it is much better that it is official.

The personal computer has come of age. Yes, it's official. It is fair to say that it is not yet mature, for surely that will only come when the industry (or a product of it) receives the Royal Warrant. That hasn't happened yet, though it probably will, for it is a British company that has officially announced that the personal computer has got as far as coming of age.

It may surprise some of you to realise that it is a British company which has made this official announcement. I must admit that I was a little taken aback myself. I had considered that when the announcement came it would be perhaps from the likes of Apple, or maybe the dear Commodore. After all Apple has managed to grow in archetypal leaps and bounds to become one of the biggest manufacturers of computers in the world. It might be reasonable to assume that the honour of officially announcing that the personal computer has come of age might go to the big A.

Then again there has been the jolly blue giant, the computer balance sheet against which all other computer balance sheets are measured and found wanting. Yes, dear old IBM went and did it last year, didn't they. Out of the corporate thought popped the IBM Personal Computer, an event which prompted some observers at the time to even say that the personal computer had now come of age.

But of course it hadn't - at least, not officially. Even though the IBM machine had lots of clever bits designed into it, not least being Intel's 8088 microprocessor and lots of memory and the speed of 16-bit processing and things, the personal computer had not yet come of age. No.

But now it has, and it is a British company that has done it. What is more, that company is the oft-maligned 'flagship' of the UK computer industry, International Computers Ltd - ICL. Now our flagship has been through a hard time recently and has ranked amongst the sick and the lame. But daring surgery and the occasional transplant has seen what would appear at first light to be a miraculous recovery. It is hoped for all concerned that the patient's long term prognosis is indeed as good as it appears now.

In fact it is from one of these transplants that the company's ability to make its official announcement has become possible. You may have seen the announcement yourself. It appeared in June, in one of the colour supplements without which each Sunday newspaper becomes just a more verbose edition of its daily kin.

To be fair, the official announcement did not come directly from ICL itself. Rather, it came from the marketing Department of Baric Computing Services, a company jointly owned by ICL and Barclays Bank (no relation). There, spread across two pages of said colour supplement were the words 'The Personal Computer Comes Of Age'. The copy went on to enthuse: 'Sooner or later it was bound to happen. One system, from a world famous computer company emerges from the crowd'.

Hands up to all those who, at this point, feel the urge to praise ICL for its magnanimity in pointing towards IBM or perhaps DEC. But no, we would be wrong to make such misguided assumptions, for the advertisement Baric placed continued with the words: 'The Personal Computer from ICL'.

I must admit that my own thoughts on first seeing this advertisement, tucked up in bed on a Sunday morning as I was with equal portions of tea, toast and a hangover, tended towards half-hearted amusement. Further reading of the copy strengthened this view, for it finished with the classic 'negative' joke: 'We're not in the entertainment business.'

For that time on a Sunday morning I found it a joke that worked quite well. Others, I found out later, were not so well disposed towards the copy. Some, it must be admitted, patently refused to see the joke. One, who has struggled long and hard to establish a niche in the industry, told me quite plainly that he thought it '******* arrogant'. I could see some logic in that point of view.

I could also see some logic in the suggestion that maybe, just maybe, the advert was not entirely... how should I say... honourable. Now, it told no actual lies, but by the same token it implied one hell of a lot more than was actually there. For example the phrases 'emerges from the crowd', 'The Personal Computer from ICL'.

The implication is that here is something significant from the company, something that 'comes into view from obscurity' (Oxford English Dictionary). Mark Potts take note.

Although our computer industry's flagship company does in fact manufacture the machine, it is neither new, nor ICL's, and for it to suddenly 'emerge from the crowd' after all this time does seem to be just a trifle presumptuous.

The machine of course, is actuary the dear old Black Box from Rair. The deal for ICL to manufacture it under licence was struck between the two companies last year, and in the intervening period between then and its official launch, ICL has re-sprayed it. There is indeed a momentary tendency to speculate that the new colour might have been ICL's normal scheme for its hardware, but the company has chosen to avoid having the machine re-christened the 'Orange Box'.

The Black Box has been around now for several years and has been developed and enhanced by Rair over that period of time into a sound, if unspectacular small business machine. It has been a consistent seller, though it has never reached the dizzy heights of the likes of Commodore, Apple or Uncle Clive. In practice, that level of volumetric pressure on sales would probably have been painful for the company.

Now it can certainly be argued that the financial and manufacturing clout of ICL could change that for the Box. The company has the resources to be able to turn on production quite significantly. But is such effort worth expending on this particular machine? With all due respect to Rair, it must be said that if the Black Box was ever going to be that significant, then maybe it would have happened back in 1978 when it first appeared. The sages nodded their collective heads appreciatively when the Box appeared; they did not jump about orgasmically like they did with some others.

ICL has got into the personal computer business, and many would say it's not before time. The way it has made its move, however, on the back of a modestly successful small business system, leaves something to be desired. At a time when the likes of IBM and Digital Equipment, respectively numbers one and two in the computer industry charts, have observed the trends in the computer industry and not just followed them, but predicted and anticipated future movements, ICL still seems to be dabbling one tiny little toe in the water.

Maybe when it finds that the water is okay, if occasionally a little choppy and rough, it will then produce a machine of its own that really justifies the hyperbole of 'one system, from a world-famous computer company emerges from the crowd'.

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