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The Amstrad E-mailer (often stylized as E-m@iler or written as Emailer or Em@iler) is a Personal Communication Centre that is a landline phone device, launched in March 2000.
The idea for the Amstrad E-mailer was conceived by Bob Watkins and was called BSI. The product was designed by Cliff Lawson and Ian Saward who started working on the Emailer in 1997.[ citation needed ] It was based on the Amstrad PB1500 Landline phone, using the same design and layout.[ citation needed ]
The first Amstrad E-mailer was a collaboration between Amstrad and BT, with Amstrad using the backend and email server provided by BT.[ citation needed ] BT released their own e-mail phone, the BT Easicom 1000, in 1998, 2 years before the Emailer's release. [1] When the Amstrad E-mailer was released in March 2000, it had the "Powered by BT" logo printed on it.[ citation needed ] By 2002 Amstrad hosted their own Email/Internet service and broke all ties with BT.[ citation needed ]
The bootloader was named "PBL", an abbreviation for "Primary Boot Loader", and was designed by Trevor Kellaway at Application Solutions for Amstrad. [2]
The E-mailer was a desktop telephone with a 4:3 5.8" LCD screen and limited Internet dialup and email messaging capabilities. Later models (the E-m@iler Plus, released 2002, and E3 Superphone with video Phone capabilities, released 2004) included the ability to play ZX Spectrum Computer Games.
Amstrad made a loss on every E-Mailer sold. Amstrad recouped that loss through the phone calls made each day with a "pay-as-you-use" business model. It was only after they were used for 2 to 3 years that they finally paid their build cost back to Amstrad and started to make a profit. Amstrad eventually broke even, as Lord Sugar said in an interview in 2011:
I think the mistake was that it was slightly too late – we're going back maybe ten years or more. The explosion of the broadband market meant the demise of that product. We sold 450,000 but we subsidised them because I wanted to get into a business where I was no longer on the treadmill of expecting to make a profit on hardware. There was a cost each time a person sent an email and that was where our revenues were coming from. But they are still out there – I think there are 150,000 people still using them and I think someone told me Amstrad now has broken even and we have actually recovered all the costs. [3]
The unpopularity of the E-mailer led to losses at Amstrad's Amserve company. This was partially attributed to the fact that any time a customer checked their emails on the E-mailer, it would cost them 20p a time. [4] In 2001, Watkins resigned after being with Amstrad for over 25 years due to losses from the E-mailer. [5] [6]
The Amstrad E-mailer relied heavily on the Amserve Service to function. Without it, it deactivates. [7]
All Amstrad E-mailer models have now been discontinued. On 30 April 2010 the Amserve E-mailer service was transferred to BSkyB, who announced that the Amserve e-mail service would close from 30 June 2011. From this date all support for the E-mailer services ended; FAQs are available on Amstrad's website but the manuals are no longer available. The E-mailer phone will only function as a conventional phone with no online services or e-mail after receiving a configuration change to stop it from deactivating, Once deactivated it stops functioning and can never be reactivated. By 2011 there were about 150,000 customers still using the Amstrad E-mailer. [8]
The Mailboard that slides out from under the handset was similar to the original ZX Spectrum keyboard, so it was similar to playing them on the Spectrum. The E3 Videophone Mailboard was the only one that was different, with rubber keys like the original ZX Spectrum.
All 3 models of the Mailboard can be used on all 3 E-mailer models, so they can use an E1 Mailboard on the E3 and vice versa, they work as a PS/2 keyboard.
The Amstrad E3 Superphone came with a gamepad similar to a PlayStation 1 controller.
The emailer also included advertising on its screen but when it downloaded the adverts it was on a free 0808 number so the customer was not charged. Advertisers included Sky, AOL, BT, Orange, Toyota, Halifax, Dialaphone, HSBC and NS&I. [9]
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and the German-speaking parts of Europe.
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Amstrad was a British consumer electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for its home computers beginning with the Amstrad CPC and later also the ZX Spectrum range after the Sinclair deal, which led it to have a substantial share of the PC market in Britain. In the following decade it shifted focus towards communication technologies, and its main business during the 2000s was the manufacture of satellite television set-top boxes for Sky, which Amstrad had started in 1989 as the then sole supplier of the emerging Sky TV service.
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Cauldron is a video game developed and published by British developer Palace Software in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC home computers. It contains both platform game and horizontally scrolling shooter sections. Players control a witch who aims to become the "Witch Queen" by defeating an enemy called the "Pumpking".
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Alberto José González Pedraza is a Spanish video game graphic artist, music composer, designer, producer, and co-founder of Bit Managers and Abylight, who has worked on a variety of titles, most notably games released by French video game publisher Infogrames. He has composed music for or worked on over 60 games, ranging from music composition to graphic programming, and eventually became one of the lead designers at the Spanish developer Abylight. Despite having composed dozens of full soundtracks for video games, González has never had any formal music training.
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