Your timescales are well out. The BBC Micro was promoted in the early 1980s. By the end of the 1990s, schools were buying awful PCs from RM, when they could have gone to (eg) Dell and got much better hardware for much lower cost. Why were they still buying stuff from RM - it makes no sense, right? Because RM had the right contacts in LEAs and government.
> By the end of the 1990s, schools were buying awful PCs from RM, when they could have gone to (eg) Dell and got much better hardware for much lower cost. Why were they still buying stuff from RM - it makes no sense, right? Because RM had the right contacts in LEAs and government.
I'm sure some did buy from Dell, but RM was an approved, specialist supplier to the education market. This involves a lot more than knocking out cheap PCs.
RM Education is "The division that deals with technology infrastructure, software and services - including learning platforms, interactive classroom equipment, connectivity, networking software, school management software and support services."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RM_Education
