Media File: 1982
Sinclair in the News

Newsweek
May 3, 1982

A $100 Home Computer

By WILLIAM D. MARBACH with PETER McALEVEY in New York

To many Americans, the world of personal computers has seemed remote. The machines often carry high price tags and are sometimes dauntingly complex. But soon home computers may become almost an impulse purchase. Last week Timex Corp. announced that it will begin marketing a new compact, lightweight model - the Timex Sinclair 1000 - for just $99.95. Beginning in July Timex will sell the computers, as it now sells its watches, through more than 100,000 drugstores, jewelry stores, department and chain stores - as well as some traditional computer shops. Timex's mass-market computer is an advanced version of the hot-selling Sinclair ZX81, sold by Britain's Sinclair Research, Ltd., and manufactured by Timex at its plant in Dundee, Scotland. Like the ZX81, the Timex must be teamed with a video screen (a home TV will work) and a cassette tape recorder to play the programing instructions into the computer. Timex also plans to sell an inexpensive printer and a telephone hookup allowing users to send and receive messages over the phone lines. Software, which includes a limited range of business and personal financial packages and educational and entertainment programs, will sell for less than $20 per cassette.

Will the mass-market approach work? "The drugstore clerk knows nothing about computers," says Jay Gottlieb, president of The Computer Factory, a New York chain of computer stores. "We're computer specialists. We sell our expertise along with the product." While it may dismay some computer retailers, Clive Sinclair, who developed the ZX81, has already proved that there is a huge market for simple computers sold off the shelf like countless other consumer products. When Sinclair put his ZX81 into a chain of magazine-cigar-and-candy stores in England, he was soon selling an average of 100 computers a month in each shop. The ZX81 also sells well in the United States, though it is available only by mail. So far, nearly 500,000 ZX81s have been sold, making Sinclair one of the world's bestselling computers.

The Timex, aimed at first-time users and the educational market, is priced below other inexpensive computers like the Atari 400 and Commodore's VIC 20. Though it doesn't offer color graphics or a welter of games, most analysts believe that the Timex may help sales of more powerful, more expensive models, such as those made by Apple, Tandy or IBM. By expanding the market, it will make people more familiar with computers and may lead Timex customers to trade up to bigger machines. Says Timex vice president Daniel D. Ross: "We think the personal computer will become as ubiquitous as the common telephone." Or, perhaps, the wristwatch.