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Franklin Computer Corporation
- this page is a stub
Franklin Computer Corporation, today known as
Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc. (FEP),
is an American electronics manufacturer, founded in 1981 and currently
based in Burlington, New Jersey (USA).
Since the mid-1980s, it produced a range
of hand-held electronic devices, such as spelling correctors, dictionaries,
translation devices, word games and medical references [1].
The company is also known for the manufacturing of clones of the
Apple II series computer, the first of which was marketed in 1982.
Apart from the hardware, the company also copied Apple's operating system,
arguing that software was not subject to copyright since it was not printed.
Franklin eventually lost the case against Apple and had to abandon
production of the clones [1].
After losing the sawsuit from Apple, the company filed for bankruptcy
and reduced its workforce from 275 to 100 employees. Nevertheless, it
kept producing Apple clones – and later also IBM PC clones – for several
years, until Apple pushed them out of the desktop marked around 1989.
It then concentrated on its hand-held product line which had been
introduced in 1986.
In 2009 the company was taken off the American Stock Exchange and
outsourced its entire research and development (R&D) to Hong Kong.
Later that year, it was merged with Saunders Acquisition Corporation [1].
At the hight of its success, the company employed 450 employees.
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Franklin products on this website
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1981 Founded as Franklin Computer Corporation 1982 Franklin ACE 100 (Apple II clone), Franklin ACE 1000 (Apple II Plus clone)
Sued by Apple 1983 Lost case against Apple 1984 Reorganisation (workforce reduced from 275 to 100) 1985 Franklin ACE 2000 (Apple IIe clone)
Franklin ACE 500 (Apple IIc clone) 1986 Franklin PC6000 (IBM clone)
Spelling ACE (hand-held refrence design) 1987 Language Master 1988 Franklin PC8000 (IBM clone)
Acquisition of Proximity Technology 1989 Abandonning of the desktop market
Electronic version of the Bible
Renamed Franklin Electronic Publishers (FEP) 1995 Bookman product line 2009 R&D outsourced to Hong Kong
Taken off the American Stock Exchange
Merged with Saunders Acquisition Corporation
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ACE 100 Apple II clone ACE 1000 Apple II Plus clone ACE 1200 Same as ACE 1000, but with two built-in 5¼" floppy drives ACE 80 Zilog Z80 processor card CX
Portable Apple II clone 1 ACE 2000 Apple IIe clone ACE 2100 With additional RAM ACE 2200 With detached keyboard and dual internal floppy PC-5000 PC clone PC-6000 PC clone with 8088 (4.77 MHz) 512K RAM, single floppy PC-8000 PC clone with 8088 (4.77 MHz) 640K RAM, dual floppy Spelling ACE 80,000 word spell checker 2 Language Master Spelling corrector, dictionary, thesaurus Word Wiz Lexicon, words games, text encryptor SpellMaster Spelling checker, word games, text encryptor Bookman Electronic book with plug-ins REX 5000 Personal digital assistent (later sold to Xircom) PageMark Japanese-English dictionary (sold via Seiko) eBookMan eBook variant of BookMan
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Cancelled due to bankruptcy in 1984.
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Using technology from Proximity Technology.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Friday 22 July 2022. Last changed: Tuesday, 26 July 2022 - 12:40 CET.
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![Original company logo (obtained via Wikipedia [1]).](svg/franklin_logo.svg){kind=logo}
