Video Technology Ltd. (VTech) is a Hong Kong-based manufacturer of consumer electronics, such a telephones and accessories and single-function computers, such as email appliances and simple computers for children, which are usually portable, battery-operated, and play one or more educational games. It was founded in 1976, and as of 2004, it has approximately 20,000 employees worldwide.In the 1980s and early 1990s, VTech also produced personal computers, including a series of IBM compatible PCs and the Laser 128, which was the only 100% legal clone of the popular Apple IIc computer. Apple Computer challenged VTech in court, much as it had Franklin Computer CorporationFranklin Computer Corporation is an American computer manufacturer based in Burlington, New Jersey, founded in 1981. Although it now manufactures handheld computers, it got its start as a manufacturer of clones of the Apple II computer series, which it fi, but the Laser 128 had been produced by reverse engineeringReverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. apart and analyzing its workings in detail, usually with the intention to construct a new device or program that does the same thing w without violating any of Apple's copyrightA copyright is a form of intellectual property that grants its holder the sole legal right copying their works of original expression, such as a literary work, movie, musical work or sound recording, painting, computer program, or industrial design, for as or patentA patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor or applicant for a limited amount of time (normally 20 years from the filing date). The term "patent" originates from the term patere which means to lay open (to public inspectios and stood up to Apple's legal challenges.
VTech stayed in the personal computer market until the days of the Intel 80486The Intel 80486 i486 486 is a range of Intel CISC microprocessors which is part of the Intel x86 family of processors. From a software point of view, the instruction set of the 486 family is very similar to its immediate predecessor, the Intel 80386, with, mostly selling its computers at retail mass market stores under the VTech, Laser, and Leading Technology brand names.
Computer hardware companies
