5 ms·

In Europe you had Clive Sinclair who produced the zx80, zx81 and, critically, the ZX Spectrum. Clive wasn't focused on building the best computer, he was focus

In Europe you had Clive Sinclair who produced the zx80, zx81 and, critically, the ZX Spectrum. Clive wasn't focused on building the best computer, he was focused on building the cheapest. He made home computers mass market. The C64 was more than twice as expensive as the Spectrum. _Anyone_ could own a Spectrum.

classichasclass 8y ago
Almost exactly the same thing was said in the US between the Apple II family and the Commodore. _Anyone_ could own a Commodore. My folks couldn't afford a IIe, but they could get a 64 and all the trimmings.
- Marazan 8y ago
  True, but for the C64 "anyone" meant anyone middle-class. The Spectrum "anyone" really meant almost anyone.
  - ido 8y ago
    You may underestimate how much: 1. prices for computers were lower in the US than in the UK 2. wealthier Americans were than europeans in the 70s and early 80s (the gap closed the further from WW2 we got) That "double" priced c64 in the UK probably set an American family back as much as a spectrum did in the UK in terms of their respective disposable income.
    - Marazan 8y ago
      The C64 launched at 600 dollars in the USA, the Timex licensed version of the Spectrum was 200 dollars.
      - rwallace 8y ago
        But the Timex Sinclair 2068 was released just over a year later, so while there was still a price discrepancy, it was much smaller than 3x.
      - classichasclass 8y ago
        And the C64 price quickly sunk like a rock once the VIC-20 left the market. The T/S 1000 (the US ZX-81), its contemporary, was seen as cheap junk. I remember my parents being critical of the keyboard and the construction, and I don't think they were atypical. The T/S 2068 was better than the 1000 in every respect, but had compatibility issues with the Spectrum, and Timex's computer division had already suffered from the poor perception of their earlier home computers.
        ido 8y ago
        and the article actually describes that very price war that commodore initiated with TI et al :) the c64 itself was quickly sold for ~$200.
vidarh 8y ago
I'm sure it gave an option to some that otherwise couldn't afford one, but the C64 outsold Spectrum several times over, and the VIC-20 before it was the first home computer to reach sales of 1m units,so I'm not sure I'd argue it was Sinclair that made computers mass market.
- Marazan 8y ago
  Official sales had the C64 outselling the Spectrum 3 to 1 'worldwide' but that ignores licened clones like the Timex and, basically, the entire Eastern European computer scene based on cloned ZX Spectrums.
  - vidarh 8y ago
    Timex only claims to have sold about 600k units, so while not insignificant, it didn't really move the needle that much. For the Eastern European markets it really varies greatly by country. Commodore dumped hundreds of thousands of C16/C116 and Plus/4's in the Eastern European markets in '86 onwards for example (largely because they'd totally flopped) - especially in Hungary where many Plus/4's ended up in schools for example, and a substantial proportion of software (quite likely a majority of titles) for those machines came out of Eastern Europe. This was a point where most of the Spectrum clones didn't even exist yet. The Spectrum clones longevity in Eastern Europe with new models appearing well into the 90's was remarkable, though, and certainly served to bridge a gap when Western computer company had largely ditched their lowest end 8-bit machines.

classichasclass 8y ago

Almost exactly the same thing was said in the US between the Apple II family and the Commodore. _Anyone_ could own a Commodore. My folks couldn't afford a IIe, but they could get a 64 and all the trimmings.

Marazan 8y ago
True, but for the C64 "anyone" meant anyone middle-class. The Spectrum "anyone" really meant almost anyone.
- ido 8y ago
  You may underestimate how much: 1. prices for computers were lower in the US than in the UK 2. wealthier Americans were than europeans in the 70s and early 80s (the gap closed the further from WW2 we got) That "double" priced c64 in the UK probably set an American family back as much as a spectrum did in the UK in terms of their respective disposable income.
  - Marazan 8y ago
    The C64 launched at 600 dollars in the USA, the Timex licensed version of the Spectrum was 200 dollars.
    - rwallace 8y ago
      But the Timex Sinclair 2068 was released just over a year later, so while there was still a price discrepancy, it was much smaller than 3x.
    - classichasclass 8y ago
      And the C64 price quickly sunk like a rock once the VIC-20 left the market. The T/S 1000 (the US ZX-81), its contemporary, was seen as cheap junk. I remember my parents being critical of the keyboard and the construction, and I don't think they were atypical. The T/S 2068 was better than the 1000 in every respect, but had compatibility issues with the Spectrum, and Timex's computer division had already suffered from the poor perception of their earlier home computers.
      - ido 8y ago
        and the article actually describes that very price war that commodore initiated with TI et al :) the c64 itself was quickly sold for ~$200.

vidarh 8y ago

I'm sure it gave an option to some that otherwise couldn't afford one, but the C64 outsold Spectrum several times over, and the VIC-20 before it was the first home computer to reach sales of 1m units,so I'm not sure I'd argue it was Sinclair that made computers mass market.

Marazan 8y ago
Official sales had the C64 outselling the Spectrum 3 to 1 'worldwide' but that ignores licened clones like the Timex and, basically, the entire Eastern European computer scene based on cloned ZX Spectrums.
- vidarh 8y ago
  Timex only claims to have sold about 600k units, so while not insignificant, it didn't really move the needle that much. For the Eastern European markets it really varies greatly by country. Commodore dumped hundreds of thousands of C16/C116 and Plus/4's in the Eastern European markets in '86 onwards for example (largely because they'd totally flopped) - especially in Hungary where many Plus/4's ended up in schools for example, and a substantial proportion of software (quite likely a majority of titles) for those machines came out of Eastern Europe. This was a point where most of the Spectrum clones didn't even exist yet. The Spectrum clones longevity in Eastern Europe with new models appearing well into the 90's was remarkable, though, and certainly served to bridge a gap when Western computer company had largely ditched their lowest end 8-bit machines.