Sharp
MZ-80B (1983)
In 1981, IBM launched the PC and the world of computing was never the same again.
Well, not quite.
It actually took some years for the PC architecture to dominate the desktop and, in the interim, many manufacturers presented alternative views of the way things should go. One such manufacturer was the Japanese Sharp Electronics company whose MZ series had already enjoyed considerable success both in Japan and in Europe. The MZ-80K and its successor the MZ-80B had proved that Sharp knew a thing or two about pleasing the domestic market. Now the company set its sights on the lucrative business market.
Their first offering, though, showed that even the gurus of Japanese marketing could get it wrong.
The MZ-80B was a beautifully made machine with a specification that, two years earlier, home computer enthusiasts would have killed for. As a contender in the business market of 1983, it was a complete also ran.
To begin with, it was based on the same Z80 8-bit processor as its predecessors. The IBM offering was more or less 16-bit (it contained the 'brain-damaged' 8088) and Chuck Peddle's super-micro the Victor 9000 was a pure 16-bit design based around the 8086 processor. Everyone was agreed that 16-bits was the way to go.
Then there was the built-in storage medium. The 80B persisted with the cassette recorder that had served Sharp so well in the 80K and 80A.
This particular
specimen was superb of its type, controlled by software and
surprisingly reliable. Unfortunately everyone else in the market place
was building high capacity floppy disks into their machines. You could
get floppy disks for the Sharp but they lived in a seperate box
connected by a ribbon cable to the main computer.
The keyboard, though well made and pleasant to use, was an integral part of the machine. In the business market that Sharp seemed to be aiming at, this was simply unacceptable. Office users voted with their corporate cheque books and stayed away in droves.
Sharp's offering did have several things going for it. The first was build quality, something that Sharp had always excelled at. Then there were the 'high resolution' graphics. Unlike its predecessors, the 80B had an 80 column display and it also had a bit-mapped resolution of 320x200 pixells. That may seem pathetic today but in 1983 it was reasonably impressive.
The result was that the 80B found a home in industry where its all metal casing and reliability, coupled with the excellent VDU, made it a natural candidate as the front end for specialised machinery. MZ-80Bs were found in factories, hospitals and laboratories, in fact, anywhere a tough simple machine was needed.
A few also found their way into the hands of the better-off enthusiasts who wanted a decent machine but couldn't quite stretch to one of the new 16-bit wonders. The result was that, especially in mainland Europe, the MZ-80B became a fairly common sight for several years.
They were much rarer in Britain, where the market had fragmented into a low-end dominated by Sinclair and Commodore, the mid-range entirely the property of the BBC Micro (built by Acorn) and the high end dominated by Chuck Peddle's British partners,
Apricot,
who re-badged the Victor as the 'Sirius' and sold them by the
lorry-load. Apricot became so well entrenched that IBM had a
serious fight on their hands when they finally introduced the PC to
Britain - a fight made all the harder by the almost simultaneous
introduction of Apple's ground breaking Macintosh.
The bottom line was that Sharp were lucky with the MZ-80B. It found a market, though not necessarily the market its manufacturers had envisaged. What it did show, though, was that price and not build quality would henceforth be the deciding factor in selling computers.
This was to come as something of a surprise to many more companies than just Sharp. The 'Clone Wars' of the late 'eighties and the 'nineties would see the demise of many companies and even mighty IBM would have to move quickly just to stay afloat as PC technology spread like a virus through the world's marketing channels.
It's safe to say that the MZ-80B was the last of its kind, a computer built for a market that only Apple would ultimately come to understand and dominate.
In 1981, IBM launched the PC and the world of computing was never the same again.
Well, not quite.
It actually took some years for the PC architecture to dominate the desktop and, in the interim, many manufacturers presented alternative views of the way things should go. One such manufacturer was the Japanese Sharp Electronics company whose MZ series had already enjoyed considerable success both in Japan and in Europe. The MZ-80K and its successor the MZ-80B had proved that Sharp knew a thing or two about pleasing the domestic market. Now the company set its sights on the lucrative business market.
Their first offering, though, showed that even the gurus of Japanese marketing could get it wrong.
The MZ-80B was a beautifully made machine with a specification that, two years earlier, home computer enthusiasts would have killed for. As a contender in the business market of 1983, it was a complete also ran.
Z80
Based
To begin with, it was based on the same Z80 8-bit processor as its predecessors. The IBM offering was more or less 16-bit (it contained the 'brain-damaged' 8088) and Chuck Peddle's super-micro the Victor 9000 was a pure 16-bit design based around the 8086 processor. Everyone was agreed that 16-bits was the way to go.
Then there was the built-in storage medium. The 80B persisted with the cassette recorder that had served Sharp so well in the 80K and 80A.
This particular
specimen was superb of its type, controlled by software and
surprisingly reliable. Unfortunately everyone else in the market place
was building high capacity floppy disks into their machines. You could
get floppy disks for the Sharp but they lived in a seperate box
connected by a ribbon cable to the main computer.The keyboard, though well made and pleasant to use, was an integral part of the machine. In the business market that Sharp seemed to be aiming at, this was simply unacceptable. Office users voted with their corporate cheque books and stayed away in droves.
Sharp's offering did have several things going for it. The first was build quality, something that Sharp had always excelled at. Then there were the 'high resolution' graphics. Unlike its predecessors, the 80B had an 80 column display and it also had a bit-mapped resolution of 320x200 pixells. That may seem pathetic today but in 1983 it was reasonably impressive.
Home
in Industry
The result was that the 80B found a home in industry where its all metal casing and reliability, coupled with the excellent VDU, made it a natural candidate as the front end for specialised machinery. MZ-80Bs were found in factories, hospitals and laboratories, in fact, anywhere a tough simple machine was needed.
A few also found their way into the hands of the better-off enthusiasts who wanted a decent machine but couldn't quite stretch to one of the new 16-bit wonders. The result was that, especially in mainland Europe, the MZ-80B became a fairly common sight for several years.
They were much rarer in Britain, where the market had fragmented into a low-end dominated by Sinclair and Commodore, the mid-range entirely the property of the BBC Micro (built by Acorn) and the high end dominated by Chuck Peddle's British partners,
Apricot,
who re-badged the Victor as the 'Sirius' and sold them by the
lorry-load. Apricot became so well entrenched that IBM had a
serious fight on their hands when they finally introduced the PC to
Britain - a fight made all the harder by the almost simultaneous
introduction of Apple's ground breaking Macintosh.The bottom line was that Sharp were lucky with the MZ-80B. It found a market, though not necessarily the market its manufacturers had envisaged. What it did show, though, was that price and not build quality would henceforth be the deciding factor in selling computers.
This was to come as something of a surprise to many more companies than just Sharp. The 'Clone Wars' of the late 'eighties and the 'nineties would see the demise of many companies and even mighty IBM would have to move quickly just to stay afloat as PC technology spread like a virus through the world's marketing channels.
It's safe to say that the MZ-80B was the last of its kind, a computer built for a market that only Apple would ultimately come to understand and dominate.
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