Editing AST Research (section)

==PC compatibles and Apple expansion (1986–1989)==
By late 1986, AST's expansion card offerings were facing imminent obsolescence, as IBM by this point had offered higher-end upgraded models of the IBM PC, chiefly the [[IBM Personal Computer XT|PC XT]] and the [[IBM Personal Computer/AT|PC/AT]], that integrated most of the features of AST's PC expansion cards.<ref name=Rebello1991 /> To keep from posting losses, AST laid off seven percent of the company's 890 employees in July 1986;<ref name=Lazzareschi1986>{{cite journal | last=Lazzareschi | first=Carla | date=July 11, 1986 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-11-fi-19928-story.html | title=Computer Add-ons AST Announces Layoffs After IBM Enters Market | journal=Los Angeles Times | page=1 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20221126053102/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-11-fi-19928-story.html | archivedate=November 26, 2022}} {{ProQuest|292395931}}</ref> clandestinely, they also laid plans to introduce a line of [[IBM PC compatible|PC-compatible]] computer systems.<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|41}} The AST Premium/286, a clone of the PC/AT featuring an identical [[Intel 80286]] microprocessor, was introduced in October 1986. To make the computer more competitive among a crowded PC compatible market, AST offered the Premium/286 in an optional package that included a discounted laser printer and image scanner, advertised as an inexpensive [[desktop publishing]] workstation. AST released an upgraded version of the Premium/286 with the 32-bit [[Intel 80386]] processor—the Premium/386—in October 1987.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Warner | first=Edward | date=November 3, 1986 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8 | title=AST Announces Two Desktop Publishing Units | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=CW Communications | volume=8 | issue=43 | page=8 | via=Google Books}}</ref>
[[File:AST RamStakPlus memory board (cropped).jpg|thumb|RamStakPlus memory board for the [[Apple IIGS]]]]
AST's products for [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] hardware were profitable enough in the interim. In 1986, AST even expanded its Apple support by introducing peripherals for the then-newly released [[Apple IIGS]], with a pair of expansion cards: the SprintDisk 1 MB RAM Disk card and the AST Vision Plus, a real-time video digitizer card.<ref name=mw87_05>{{cite journal |journal=Macworld |date=May 1987 |title=Verbatim: An Interview with Ash Jain, Vice President of AST Research |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=67–91 |first=Jerry |last=Borrell |url=https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_8705_May_1987/page/n70/mode/1up |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> The Vision Plus was eventually sold to [[S3 Group|Silicon & Software]] and licensed to Virtual Realities (and sold through [[Other World Computing|LRO]] and later Alltech Electronics). In 1987 it went on to produce a memory expansion card for the Apple IIGS: the RamStakPlus, a dual RAM/ROM memory expansion card.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1986-12_OCR/page/n47/mode/1up |journal=Byte |publisher=McGraw-Hill |date=December 1986 |volume=11 |issue=13 |page=42 |title=Extra Memory for Apple IIGS |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> AST Research also produced for the [[Macintosh]] line the [[Mac286]], a pair of [[NuBus]] cards containing an [[Intel 80286]] and [[random-access memory|RAM]], allowing a Macintosh to run [[MS-DOS]] side by side with its existing operating system.<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://archive.org/details/macworld00unse_qn5/page/185/mode/1up |title=The Best of Both Worlds |page=185 |first=David |last=Peltz |date=May 1988 |journal=Macworld |volume=5 |issue=5 |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref>

By 1987 some AST employees thought that their company could achieve $500 million to $1 billion in annual revenue in the next five years, becoming [[Orange County, California]]'s leading technology company. The Premium/286 accounted for half of the company's sales by July 1987,<ref name=Vieth1987>{{cite news | last=Vieth | first=Warren | date=July 28, 1987 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-07-28-fi-5906-story.html | title=AST Sees Sales Jump as Vindication of Decision to Take on PC Giants | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | page=1 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20221126062600/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-07-28-fi-5906-story.html | archivedate=November 26, 2022}} {{ProQuest|292555758}}</ref> but it was only a meager success for AST at first.<ref name=Rebello1991 /> In 1987, the company reported a net income of $13&nbsp;million,<ref>{{cite news | last=Schine | first=Eric | date=March 20, 1988 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-20-fi-2175-story.html | title=Risk-Taker AST Research Now Trying to Turn Big Sales Into Big Profits | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | page=8 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20221126061409/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-20-fi-2175-story.html | archivedate=November 26, 2022}} {{ProQuest|292783299}}</ref> less than half the profit they had posted the preceding year.<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|42}} AST had several setbacks in 1987, including flat sales of expansion products<ref name=Vieth1987 /> and delayed shipments of a peripheral for IBM PCs in June 1987 that was a factor in a canceled stock call the following month.<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|42}}<ref>{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=July 3, 1987 | title=Financing Business: AST Research Inc. | journal=The Wall Street Journal | publisher=Dow Jones & Company | page=1}} {{ProQuest|398127869}}</ref> That year, IBM sued AST over alleged trademark infringement of IBM's [[PS/2]] product name occurring in one of AST's print advertisements for RAM, which was settled out of court.<ref>{{cite news | last=Staff writer | date=November 4, 1987 | title=AST Research, IBM Settle PS/2 Trademark Lawsuit | newspaper=The Wall Street Journal | publisher=Dow Jones & Company | page=1}} {{ProQuest|398023315}}</ref> In 1988, AST's executives began a reorganization effort to preserve the company. The first initiative was the merging of AST's data communications group into its systems products division.<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|42}} With the nascent [[OS/2]] operating system coming to market that year, co-developed by IBM and [[Microsoft]], AST licensed the rights from Microsoft to market its own OEM versions of OS/2 as an option for its Premium line of computers.<ref>{{cite magazine | last=Brownstein | first=Mark | date=February 29, 1988 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CT8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT23 | title=AST to Ship Its Version of OS/2 in March | magazine=[[InfoWorld]] | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=10 | issue=9 | page=23 | via=Google Books}}</ref>

In late 1988, AST joined eight other major PC compatible manufacturers to develop the [[Extended Industry Standard Architecture]] as a viable competitor to IBM's closely guarded [[Micro Channel architecture|Micro Channel]] bus architecture. This consortium was known as the "[[Extended Industry Standard Architecture#The Gang of Nine|Gang of Nine]]", led by Compaq.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Bane | first=Michael | date=November 20, 1988 | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-11-20-8802180783-story.html | title=9 Clonemakers Unite to Take On the Industry Giant | journal=Chicago Tribune | page=11 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112024817/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-11-20-8802180783-story.html | archivedate=November 12, 2020}} {{ProQuest|282556133}}</ref>

From July to November 1988, AST introduced seven models of premium computers,<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|42}} and in early September 1988, they announced a $2.2&nbsp;million television advertising campaign, the first commercials of which premiering during the [[1988 Summer Olympics]] that month.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Weglarz | first=Nilda | date=September 13, 1988 | title=TV's golden moments | journal=The Orange County Register | page=D1}} {{ProQuest|272271826}}</ref> The television commercials comprised roughly 20&nbsp;percent of AST's $12&nbsp;million advertising budget and were supported by a line of memorabilia, including pins, posters, and video tapes, tying in with the Olympics and offered at computer dealer shows.<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|42}} By the end of 1988, AST's restructuring and advertising efforts were successful, with year-to-year sales increasing 100&nbsp;percent to $412.7&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Dubashi | first=Jagannath | date=January 10, 1989 | title=The Calm Before the Storm | journal=Financial World | publisher=Financial World Partners | volume=158 | issue=1 | pages=46–47}} {{ProQuest|225620235}}</ref>{{r|miller19950917}} AST was now third place in sales among manufacturers of PC compatibles, behind IBM and [[Compaq]].<ref>{{cite journal | last=Vranizan | first=Michelle | date=November 9, 1988 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/272298234/ | title=AST co-chairman Albert Wong leaves | journal=The Orange County Register | page=C1}} {{ProQuest|272298234}}</ref>

In late 1988, Wong was ousted from AST after a heated boardroom debate with Yuen, in which Wong had complained about the company's recent turbulence.<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|42}} In January 1989, the company laid off 120 employees, or six percent of the workforce. In early 1989, AST reported its first quarterly loss, totaling $8.9&nbsp;million. The technology press speculated that the loss was due to AST ignoring [[Intel]]'s development of the [[i486]] while the company was busy restructuring and boosting its advertising. When Intel released the i486 to the public in early 1989, AST was one of the few PC compatible manufacturers which did not announce a i486 computer in the pipeline contemporaneously. Slowing sales led to crowded warehouses of AST products, leading to strain for AST in the form of storage costs.<ref name=Armstrong1991 />{{rp|126}} To recoup its losses, in April 1989, the company spun off Camintonn, relinquishing control to the division's managers, and in mid-1989, the company sold its Apple-related products to [[Orange Micro]].<ref name=idch1994 />{{rp|41}}<ref name=Hawk1989>{{cite journal | last=Hawk | first=Steve | date=March 10, 1989 | title=AST puts Macintosh division up for sale | journal=The Orange County Register | page=C4}} {{ProQuest|272364866}}</ref> In 1989, AST was ranked as the ninth largest personal computer manufacturer in the United States with a 2% market share, despite being a relatively late entry in the market.<ref name=":2" /> A 1990 [[American Institute of Certified Public Accountants]] member survey found that 2% of respondents used AST computers, among the many vendors with single-digit shares of the market after IBM and Compaq.<ref name="aicpa1990">{{Cite report |url=https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1563&context=aicpa_guides |title=1990 AICPA survey of computer usage |author-link=American Institute of Certified Public Accountants |year=1990 |id=561 |access-date=2025-04-30}}</ref>