IBM's flirtation with home computing has come to an end with the sudden death of the ill-fated PC Jr.

The multinational computer supplies said last week that it will stop making Juniors in April 1985. US analysts estimate that it has about 100,000 units in its warehouses and these will steadily be sold off. IBM has promised to carry on producing PC Jr add-ons - cartridge software, memory expansions and peripherals.

But it has given no indication at all of what led it to pull out of the home market, dropping a machine that is barely 18 months old. Nor will it talk about developments to the PC line. Oddly enough, the passing of the PC Jr could spell even more trouble for IBM's hard-pressed rivals.

On the face of it, IBM's withdrawal of the Jr should help sales of the Apple II line; but reports from the US towards the end of last year and in the first months of 1985 showed that the revamped and repriced Jr was damaging Apple's sales. With 100,000 or more Jrs about to hit the market, possibly even cheaper for a quick sale, the II series will be under more pressure. IBM may be pulling out of production but its guarantees of continued support should be worth more than the average micro manufacturer's.

The Jr had also begun to nibble at sales of the IBM PC itself. Its removal from the scene could herald a price cut to the PC as the prelude to the widely rumoured PC II. An IBM spokeswoman scoffed heartily at this speculation last week, but Apple with the Macintosh and Old Uncle Tom Cobbley and all with their PC lookalikes won't be reassured.

The straightforward explanation, that the Jr was a flop and IBM decided to cut its losses, cuts very little ice. IBM can stand a loss better than any other computer supplier and it can spot a strategic gain as well as most. It has also shown a marked reluctance in the past to admit to a flop.

But the Jr never came near to justifying the hysteria that its approach generated in the lead up to Christmas 1983. Peanut fever (Peanut was its code name) swept the US as otherwise sensible people waited with bated breath for the launch of IBM's home micro. But the actual system was a disappointment. Business users hated the chiclets keyboard and everybody agreed that it was ludicrously overpriced.

When the price came down from $1,269 to $800 (with a real keyboard, a colour monitor, more memory, and $200 of software thrown in) the Jr at last began to make an impact. But this was only four months ago, and its days were already numbered.

The PC Jr never made it across the Atlantic to the UK and it will not be mourned here. Its death is one in the eye for IBM, but it could be worse news for everybody else trying for the same sort of market.