$99.95 Timex Sinclair 1000 microcomputer debuts

Calling it a “milestone in the 125-year history of the Timex Corporation,” Timex introduced a $99.95 personal computer with 2K memory, which was developed by Sinclair Research and is essentially an upgrade of the Sinclair ZX81 micro.

The Timex Sinclair 1000, as the computer is called, adds an extra 1K memory to the ZX81. Further enhancements (to be available in the last quarter of this year) include a communications-interface device and a thermal printer, which will sell for $99.95 each.

“For the first time, a fully programmable computer is within reach of most American budgets,” said Daniel D. Ross, VP of Timex Computer.

Americans will be able to buy the small computer in July at more than 100,000 Timex retail outlets nationwide, including computer stores, department stores, jeweiry stores and drug stores.

The company’s major task is to persuade customers that the computer is easy to use and will be a valuable asset. Timex is producing documentation to provide step-by-step lessons in programming in BASIC, and it is also working on a point-of-sale display that will aid sales clerks, who are not technical specialists, to sell the computer.

Sinclair has sold about 500,000 ZX81s through the mail. Timex said it felt this new product would also be able to carve out a share of the growing microcomputer market.

Packaged software

The computer is the result of a joint agreement between Timex and Sinclair Research. “We have the rights to all Sinclair technology (to do with computers) and we can take it and technologically enhance it if required and bring it to the marketplace. Ross said. The agreement is limited to North America and Central American countries, including the Caribbean. Timex said the Timex Sinclair 1000 would be the first in a line of computers the company would offer. The computer will be made, at a rate of one every ten seconds, at Timex’s Dundee, Scotland, manufacturing facility where Sinclair’s ZX81s are also made.

Times declined to give details of future products, but Clive Sinclair, president of Sinclair Research, said the flat-screen technology his company is working on would be incorporated into future Sinclair computers.

Ross said a major selling point for the Tinea Sinclair 1000 would be packaged software; the company plans to offer about 25 packages when the computer reaches the shelves this July. These will include a VisiCale-type business-application package and some educational software.

In another bid to gain a share of the business market, Timex hopes to capitalize on a communications-intertace device to be available later this year. The computer will then be able to access the numerous popular data bases curently offered, Ross said.

The $99.95 interface device will feature standard Bell Telephone jack attachments and an auto-dial capability; it will communicate at a rate of 300 baud.

Other peripherals for the computer include a 16K RAM memory-expansion module that sells for $49.95, which is $50 less than a similar unit for the ZX81. This will be available with the computer in July.

The thermal printer features alphanumerics and graphics across 32 columns and has a COPY command that allows you to print out exactly what is on the screen without further instruction.

The only difference between the Timex Sinclair 1000 and the ZX81 is the 1K memory. In other respects, the four-chip design, the 40-key pressure-sensitive keyboard, the Z80A 8-bit processor, the 37-character graphic symbols and other features are identical to the ZX81.

Timex said that it would support the ZX81 and would take over marketing it as soon as the new computer had reached sales quotas–which were not specified. At present, it is offering a 90-day warranty for the new micro.

J. Walter Thompson, which will act as advertising agent for the Timex micro, is planning a mass-media marketing campaign set to debut in August.

A slogan for the Timex Sinclair 1000 has not been announced yet, but Ross did say that, though the computer is designed for children and extremely durable, advertisements will not show it strapped to the front of a boat, like the Timex watches were, to test its shock-resistant qualities.