Amstrad, as a company, had long endured a reputation in audio outlets for producing less than top notch kit. Indeed, there was a joke (in other words, it's not true, libel lawyers) which said that when Amstrad produced their first hi-fi with built-in CD, tape and radio, the engineers went to Alan Sugar and reported that the CD failed to reproduce sound any better than the tape deck. Sugar gruffly replied: "Well, just make the tape deck sound worse then."

Then Amstrad entered the computer industry with their CPC machines and this less than desirable image was banished overnight. In terms of build quality and reliability, their systems stood head and shoulders above their competitors from Sinclair and Commodore, both of which appeared to have quality control departments where it was forever Friday lunchtime.

The success of the CPCs encouraged Amstrad to release the PCW, a purpose-built word processor which the country, particularly old folk wishing to write their memoirs, went wild for. Then came the Amstrad PCs, which were even more successful. The phrase 'The Amstrad Effect', meaning that when Amstrad released a new product it immediately became mass market, became part of the industry vernacular.

They didn't always get it right, though. The GX games console bombed, but that was understood to be because the competition, in the form of Sega and Nintendo, was so well established. It was when they entered a previously niche market that the Amstrad Effect was said to be strongest. As such, was expected when the company unveiled the NC100 this week, seven years ago.

It was a notebook computer aimed firmly at the man in the street. Costing just £199, it had an 8-line LCD screen and built in software which included a word processor, calendar and diary, each of which could be accessed by simply pressing the brightly coloured button on the keyboard which corresponded to that function.

The NC100 was supported by a massive £3 million advertising campaign which promised, "If you can't use an Amstrad notepad in just five minutes you'll get your money back," and it was a great little machine. However, for reasons I can't explain, the NC100 failed to capture hardly any hearts and minds - staggering, when you consider its competitors were the teeny weeny-keyboarded Psion or 'proper' notebooks costing over a grand. Amstrad limped meekly away from the mainstream computer market, never to return...