Sinclair Research Ltd |
Sinclair Research Ltd was a home computer company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England (originally as Sinclair Radionics in 1961) to sell hi-fi equipment, Calculators, radios and other products. In 1966 Sinclair created but never sold the world s first pocket television. In 1972 they marketed the world s first pocket calculator, the Sinclair Executive.
In the 1980s Sinclair entered the personal computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at the time the cheapest personal computer for sale in the UK. In 1982 the ZX Spectrum was released, later becoming Britain best selling computer, competing aggressively against Commodore_International and Amstrad. The combination of the 1984 failures of the Sinclair QL computer and TV80, and the 1985 Sinclair C5 electric vehicle bankrupted the company, and a year later Sinclair s products were sold to Amstrad. Sinclair still exists today, continuing to market Sir Clive Sinclair s newest inventions.
=History=
==1961 to 1980==
=== Sinclair Radionics ===
On 25 July, 1961 Sir Clive Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics in Cambridge, England after raising funds to start the business by writing articles for Practical Wireless magazine. Sinclair Radionics developed hi-fi products, radios, calculators and scientific instruments. In 1963, Sinclair Radionics introduced their first radio with the Sinclair Slimline in kit form at forty-nine shillings and sixpence. A year later in 1964 Sinclair released the Micro-6 , match-box size radio which the company claimed was the world s smallest radio . It could also be worn on your wrist with the Transrista . In 1965 the Micro-FM debuted as the world s first pocket-size FM tuner-receiver , but was unsuccessful due to technical difficulties. Despite problems, illegal clones were produced in the far-east. Sinclair s final 1960s radio kit was the 1967 Micromatic , it was billed as the world s smallest radio like Sinclair s earlier radios. The Micromatic was a reasonable success and was sold until 1971. In May 1971 Sinclair Radionics made £85,000 profit on £563,000 turnover; the following year profit increased to £97,000 on turnover of £761,000.
In 1966 Sinclair Radionics entered the hi-fi market with the Stereo 25 , a low-cost pre-amp control system, production was halted in 1968 due to low supply of transistors which had been purchased in 1964 as rejects from other manufacturers. In 1969 it was replaced by the Stereo Sixty , which soon became Sinclair s most successful audio product, being the second product of the Project 60 range. The Project 60 products sold well and were supplemented by the Project 605 kit in 1972. It was eventually superseded by the more advanced Project 80 kit in 1974. In September 1973 Sinclair purchased Ablesdeal so that he would be able to avoid the delay of incorporating a company if it became convenient for him to shift his ambitions away from Sinclair Radionics. In May 1973 Sinclair Radionics generated £1.8m turnover.
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During the majority of the 1970s Sinclair focused on building the most affordable pocket calculators, with the best design. In 1972, Sinclair released the world s first slim-line pocket calculator, the Sinclair Executive, for £79.95. The calculator only included basic math functions, and the LED display required lots of power. It is often credited as being the world s first attractively-styled calculator, that didn t require mains power to be used like prior calculators. The executive was a phenomenal success, earning Sinclair £1.8m in profit. In 1973 the Executive Memory was introduced at a far cheaper price of £24.95.
In August of 1975 Sinclair released the Sinclair Scientific, a scientific pocket calculator for £99.95. It used RPN, and displays only in 5 digit mantissa or 2 digit. In 1977 a revised model, the Scientific Programmable , was released at £29.95. The Scientific Programmable Mark 2 was later released, reducing the price to £17.22. Sinclair attempted to capture the top-end calculator market with the Sinclair Sovereign, available in plated gold or silver, it was critically acclaimed for its excellent engineering and design and enjoyed short success.
, who had been working for Radionics since 1966, to leave and get Sinclair Instrument started.
Sinclair Instrument developed the Wrist Calculator to generate cash, it soon became a commercial success selling in surprising figures. In July 1977 Sinclair Instrument Ltd was renamed to Science of Cambridge Ltd . Around about the same time, Ian Williamson showed Chris Curry a prototype computer based around a National Semiconductor SC/MP and some parts taken from an earlier Sinclair calculator. Curry was impressed and encouraged Sinclair to adopt this as a product; an agreement was reached with Williamson but no contract was ever signed, Nat Semi had offered to redesign the project so that it used only their components and they also offered to manufacture the boards.
=== Science of Cambridge years ===
In June 1978 Science of Cambridge launched a microcomputer kit, marketed as the MK14, based around the National SC/MP chip. By July 1978, a personal computer project was already underway. When Sinclair learnt that the Grundy NewBrain could not be sold at below the sub-£100 price that he envisaged, his thoughts turned to the ZX80 instead. In May 1979 Jim Westwood started the ZX80 project at Science of Cambridge, it was launched in February 1980 at £79.95 in kit form and £99.95 ready-built. In November Science of Cambridge was renamed to Sinclair Computers Ltd .
==1981 to 1986==
=== Home computers ===
In March 1981 Sinclair Computers was renamed to Sinclair Research Ltd and the Sinclair ZX81 was launched at £49.95 in kit form and £69.95 ready-built, by mail order. In February 1982 Timex obtained a license to manufacture and market Sinclair s computers in the USA under the name Timex Sinclair. In April the ZX Spectrum was launched, priced at £125 for the 16 kB RAM version and £175 for the 48 kB version. In July Timex launched the Timex Sinclair 1000 (a version of the ZX81) in the US. In March 1982 Sinclair made an £8.55m profit on turnover of £27.17m, including £383,000 government grants for flat screen.
In January 1983 the ZX Spectrum personal computer was presented at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. In September the Sinclair TV80 television was launched, using flat-screen technology unlike Sinclair s previous CRT televisions, the TV80 was a commercial failure only selling 15,000 units and not covering its development costs of £4m.
In late 1983, Timex decided to pull out of the Timex Sinclair venture, which had failed to break the US market as expected due to strong competition. However Timex computers continued to be produced for several years in other countries. Timex Portugal, with the Timex Sinclair 2048 and Timex Sinclair 2068, launched improved versions capable of displaying more colours, and a better circuit design. They also developed and launched the FDD 3000, a floppy disk system, that was not well received by the market.
The Sinclair QL was announced on January 12 1984, shortly before the Apple Macintosh actually went on sale . This was a new computer, to be aimed at the business market and costing £399. However, at this point the final design had not yet been completed. Shipping finally started in May, with 13,000 orders taken, but only a few hundred units delivered at first. Because the initially supplied ROM had proved insufficient, early machines were shipped with a kludge hanging out of the machine with additional ROM space . Your Sinclair noted that it was difficult to find a good word for Sinclair Research in the computer press .
Fully working QLs were not available until late summer; complaints against Sinclair regarding delays were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority in May of the year (in 1982 it had upheld complaints about delays in shipping Spectrums). Especially severe were allegations that it was cashing cheques months before machines were shipped. The QL was nowhere near as successful as Sinclair s earlier computers. In the autumn, Sinclair were still publically predicting it would be a million seller , with 250,000 sold by the end of the year . QL production was suspended in February 1985, and the price was halved by the end of the year .
Between 1981 and 1988 Sinclair created ten peripherals for their computers, including joysticks, a printer, hard drive, and memory expansion modules. Some of the peripherals were developed by Amstrad but still marketed under the Sinclair brand. External storage for the Spectrum was usually on tapes, as was common in the era. Rather than an optional disk drive, Sinclair instead opted to offer their own system, the ZX Microdrive, a tape-loop system that was rather unreliable. This was the primary storage option for the QL as well.
The Spectrum Plus , a retooled Spectrum with a plastic keyboard, was launched in October and appeared on WHSmith s shelves the day after release. Retailers stocked the machine in large numbers in expectation of good Christmas sales, however it did not sell in the numbers expected and, because retailers still had unsold stock, Sinclair s income from orders dipped alarmingly in January. The Spectrum Plus had the same technical specifications as the original Spectrum. An upgraded spectrum, the Spectrum 128K, was launched in Spain in September 1985, by the Spanish firm Investronica. [http://www.crashonline.org.uk/22/editrl.htm] January 1986 saw the machine launched in the UK, apparently in an attempt to generate cash. [http://www.crashonline.org.uk/50/sinchist.htm]
=== Decline and Amstrad acquisition===
In January 1985, Sinclair released the FM Wristwatch Radio , an LCD wristwatch with a radio attached. The aerial was built into the strap and the battery was hidden in the clasp, presumably in an attempt to balance out the considerable weight of the watch. The watch had several usage problems, and never went into full production, making it one of the rarest Sinclair products.
, caused investors to lose confidence in the company.
On 28 May, 1985, Sinclair had announced that it wanted to raise an extra £10 to 15m to restructure the company. Given the loss of confidence in the company, this proved hard to find. In 1986, the company sold its entire computer product range and the Sinclair brand name to Amstrad. This deal did not involve the company, merely its name and products.
==1990s to present==
Today the company still exists, but in a completely different form that it did in the 1980s. In 1993, 1994 and 1995 Sinclair made continuing losses on decreasing turnover, and began to worry investors since Clive Sinclair himself was using his own personal wealth to fund his inventions. By 1990 Sinclair s entire staff had been reduced to Sinclair himself, a salesperson/administrator, and R&D employee. By 1997 reportedly only Sinclair on his own was working at his company.
In 1992 the Zike electric bicycle was released, Sinclair s second attempt at changing means of transportation. The Zike was a commercial failure much like the Sinclair C5 was, and only sold a total of 2,000 units. It had a maximum speed of 10 mph (16 km/h), and was only available through mail order.
In 1997 Sinclair released the world s smallest radio with the Z1 Micro AM Radio . In 2003, the Sinclair ZA20 Wheelchair Drive Unit was introduced, designed and manufactured in conjunction with Hong Kong s Daka Designs, a partnership which also led to the SeaDoo Sea Scooter, an underwater propulsion unit. Sinclair recently announced that they will release a folding bicycle, named the A-Bike , in 2005.
= Facts and Trivia =
= Notes =
# [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27paw4/yr02/yr02_q2.htm Your Spectrum Issue 2, March 1984 - QL User supplement] # [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27paw4/yr05/yr05_47.htm#SinclairWatch Your Spectrum Issue 5, July 1984 - QL News / SinclairWatch] # [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27paw4/yr07/yr07_72.htm#Circe Your Spectrum Issue 7, September 1984 - Circe] # [http://www.zqaonline.com/Events/History.aspx zqaonline Timex/Sinclair history]
= See also =
= Further Reading =
=References=
=External links=
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