User:Ambraowner/sandbox

Introduction
Ambra Personal Computers was the trading name of Individual Computer Products International Ltd, a subsidiary of IBM in the United Kingdom. The registered company number was 1197742. The registered address was PO Box 41 North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU. The company operated between June 1992 and August 1994 and offered a selection of home and business computers all titled with an athletic style nomenclature, namely Hurdla, Sprinta and Treka. These systems were designed in Germany by Frog Marketing and distributed via mail order from factories in Scotland, and later the Netherlands.

Particularly after the closure of Ambra in 1994, IBM US was keen to state that ICPI was very much a European operation and was not to be regarded as the same as the Ambra Computer Corporation, despite sharing a product name and have effectively the same computer chassis.

Logo
The Ambra logo was that of an athlete appearing to sprint up a hill, with the word AMBRA written underneath. The significance of the final "A" of the Ambra logo is that it is remarkably similar to the same A in the Canadian/US logo used for products under the Ambra Computer Corporation (the US based subsidiary of IBM). The cross of the A resembles a bolt of lightening perhaps keeping in theme with athletic branding.

Tagline
The tagline for the brand was Take your mind for a run. Excepting the logo itself which had capital letters, most other titling was printed in lowercase bold Arial lettering.

Models
There were three main models - the Ambra Hurdla (big desktop), Ambra Sprinta (slimline), and Ambra Treka (notebook). There were several generations of each as processors moved from 80386 to 80486.

Software
The software on the Ambra portfolio was issued under a License Non-Disclosure Agreement, allowing IBM to pre-load all of the software without actually providing the floppy disks or the media for it. This was somewhat strange as full size Ambra branded manuals were included for DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, Microsoft Works 2.0a, and Lemmings. In the early models no means of installation disk creation was provided by Ambra although it was possible under the support agreement to ring the call centre and have some posted to you temporarily (alternatively £20 would be charged for non-return). The disks that were loaned if required were Ambra branded 3.5 inch floppy disks.

In later versions (from 80486 release), Ambra included a utility called "Disk Builder" which used hidden installation files on the C drive as a way to generate install disks provided by the user. Presumably this was in response to incoming call centre requests for the software.

IBM DOS 5.0
The base operating system shipped with the first few generations was | IBM DOS 5.0

Ambra Specific
Included in the directory C:\AMBRA was the tutorial software and readme, both of which was relevant to the specific model, and European language of the machine being installed on. From the Windows 3.1 Program Manager, a specific group called "AMBRA" was shown which contained the icons for the tutorial (which loaded as a DOS application), and the readme (ambra.doc) file (which opened in the Write application).

Bespoke Icons
There were 3 icons which were notable from Windows 3.1 Program Manager:


 * The Ambra Tutorial Icon (ambra.ico)
 * The (IBM) DOS Prompt Icon (dosprmpt.ico) - This had been changed from the standard MS-DOS prompt as it shipped with the IBM version.
 * The Lemmings Icon (lemmings.ico) - This was in the Games group with Program Manager in front of Solitaire and Minesweeper

Additionally, the readme icon was taken from the moricons.dll windows library file which displayed "READ ME NOW!" =Documentation= With the exception of Lemmings (the user manual was provided in an Ambra branded envelope, but was the Pygnosis manual), all documentation was Ambra branded.

Getting Started Guide
=Consumer Opinion= Interestingly, although there was some criticism about the management style of the company and the quality of the components, the end customers who actually purchased the Ambra line were generally very satisfied and liked the products. Analysis of Ambra's exit from the market cited product positioning in relation to the IBM parent company's own value brands was confused. It has been suggested that it wouldn't have taken much for Ambra to have broken the mould and been a serious contender in the budget line had pricing, position in relation to IBM and logistics been better managed.