In the 1980s the company launched the popular Amstrad CPC 464 home computer range in the UK, France and Germany, and also the business-orientated Amstrad PCW range, which was principally a word processor running the CP/M operating system and LocoScript Amstrad's proprietary word processing program.
In 1988 it bought the home computer division of Sinclair Research and its ZX Spectrum. It launched several new variants of the Spectrum: the +2, with a built-in tape drive, and the +3, with a built-in disk drive, taking non-standard 3" disks that many Amstrad machines used.
The company moved with the times and produced a range of affordable MS-DOS based personal computers, the first of which was the PC-1512.
The company still trades electronic goods such as music hi-fi systems, satellite dishes, etc.