The Spectrum came out before the BBC Micro and was a success because it was cheap, colour and could make beepy noises. The BBC Micro was much more an educationa

The Spectrum came out before the BBC Micro and was a success because it was cheap, colour and could make beepy noises. The BBC Micro was much more an educational tool. The British Government put out a list of computers that were appropriate for schools and Sinclair was furious his computers weren't on the list, so he offered schools a ridiculous deal that some took, but the majority of schools used BBC Micros because of the BBC programmes. Really it was a very bad move and many schools continued by using Acorn Archimedes computers instead of PCs even as the Internet was taking off and it was quite clear that we were facing a Windows world.