I'm an American myself, and I grew up in that era. The Apple II was a pricey machine, which enjoyed popularity in schools (who got steep discounts from Apple),

I'm an American myself, and I grew up in that era. The Apple II was a pricey machine, which enjoyed popularity in schools (who got steep discounts from Apple), but it was nowhere near as widely accepted in the home as the Sinclair machines were. The other major competitors (TRS-80, etc.) were not much better. By contrast the ZX Spectrum was so cheap and plentiful that the C64 was considered one of the more expensive options in Blighty. Due to this and some cultural differences (America being a bit more of a "consume product" culture and the UK being a bit more "make do with what you've got"), the Spectrum was host to considerable innovation, even from bedroom programmers. The Timex Sinclair line did trigger something of a mid-80s pricing war, yielding cheap but low-spec machines like the TRS-80 MC-10, the cancelled TI-99/2, the Mattel Aquarius, and the Commodore 16. But only the Commodore gained any traction as far as I'm aware, and only it could rival the Spectrum in terms of capability (but not in ubiquity).