Media File: 1982
Sinclair in the News

Financial Times
April 24, 1982

Sinclair launches £125 computer

By Guy de Jonquieres

Mr Clive Sinclair yesterday unveiled a £125 personal computer which, he claimed, performs better than machines costing £500.

The ZX Spectrum is Sinclair's most powerful machine. It will supplement the successful £70 ZX81, of which more than 400,000 have been sold in its first year. Production of the ZX Spectrum is to start in a few weeks, at an initial rate of 20,000 machines a month. Mr Sinclair hopes to sell 300,000-400,000 in the first year.

The ZX Spectrum is intended to compete with such popular personal computers as the British-made BBC Micro and machines made by U.S. companies including Texas Instruments, Commodore, Tandy Radio Shack and Atari.

It will be sold in two versions, the more powerful of which will cost £175. The power of the cheaper version can be increased by fitting an extra memory pack for about £60. All prices include VAT.

Mr Sinclair expected the machines to be bought by ZX81 owners interested in computing as a hobby and by managers and professional staff who wanted their own desktop computer at work.

The ZX Spectrum has several features not available on the ZX81. They include the ability to generate and display graphics using eight colours, a more versatile programming language, better keyboard and facilities for linking several machines in a communication network.

Mail order sales of the ZX Spectrum will start in the UK in a few weeks, and exports will start late in the year. Like the ZX81, it will be made at a factory in Dunce, Scotland, owned by Timex, the U.S. watch group.

He said sales by his company, Sinclair Research, had risen to about £27m in the year to March 31 from £4.7m, while pre-tax profits had increased to about £10m from £1.1m.

Sinclair Research has been discussing with N.M. Rothschild, the merchant bank, the possibility of selling shares through a private placement this year. Mr Sinclair said this would raise capital to finance non-computer activities, including the development of an electric car.