Ambra Computer Corporation was a subsidiary of IBM. Created by Dr Richard Greame Ambra, it introduced a line of personal computers targeted at the home user, sold mainly through mail-order, first in Europe (1992), then in the USA (1993). Ambra had a volume production run of just a year or so; the line was discontinued in 1994[1] in favor of the IBM Aptiva (except for Canada, where it was not discontinued until 1996).[2]
Models
Ambra 486 Sprinta used by Linus Torvalds from 1993-1994.
386
486
Achiever 2000
Achiever 3000
Achiever 4000
Achiever 5000
Achiever 7000
Achiever 9000
Achiever D
Achiever DP
Achiever S
Achiever T
Achiever Anthem
Achiever Hurdla/Sprinta
Notebook
Ispirati (Canada)
Positioning
Ambra PCs were generally positioned at the low-end of the market, and made use of their ties with IBM in marketing materials in order to make the machines appear better quality than the host of clones, since 'real' IBM PCs were known to be expensive. In reality the machines were fairly low specification, having shadow-mask screens, minimal onboard peripherals, and using low-end processors with the minimum memory and hard disk size at each price.
Television advertising for the brand in the UK used the slogan: "Take your mind for a run."
Aesthetics
The machines were coloured off-white, which was unusual at the time, since most machines were beige. Generally the cases were compact and offered little room for expansion.
An Ambra mouse, showing its unusual front-button placement
One notable aspect was the original Ambra mouse, which differed from almost all other designs in the position of its buttons. Conventional mice have the buttons on top: the user clicks by pressing down. The Ambra mouse had the buttons on the front, either side of the cable: the user clicked by pulling their finger backward, in a manner similar to squeezing a trigger. Criticisms led to Ambra changing to a more conventional design: one UK magazine review described the mouse as "looking like a torture device."
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