If you’re reading this magazine, you’ve probably heard of Sir Clive Sinclair. It was Sinclair who created the ZX80 and its successors the ZX81, TS1000, TS1500, Spectrum, and TS2048. He made it affordable for many people to buy a real computer, and a whole industry has sprung up around the 2 million Sinclair computers sold. You may not know that Sir Clive has also been working on many other projects through Sinclair Research, Ltd., the company he founded.
Now Sinclair Research has come out with a new pocket-sized television, which Sinclair predicts will do for TV what the transistor did for radio. The dimensions of the set are 5½x3½x1½ inches deep, with a 2 inch screen. The TV is available only by mail order at this time from Sinclair Research, Ltd., and sells for $120. (Sony’s watchman is $167 and Casio’s mini-TV is $200). It is expected to be sold in the U.S. for $99 in late 1984. The TV’s lithium cell battery holds a 15-hour charge which is several times that of rival mini-TV’s. Pocket TV’s may be as common as pocket calculators in a few years.
What other products can we expect from Sinclair Research, Ltd.? Sir Clive is said to be very interested in producing electric cars. Also in the works: robots, telecommunication devices, computer-aided design tools, and a new business/professional computer using “fifth-generation” technology.
Sinclair spends only a few hours a day in the office. He says “The office routine is an interruption to what I see as my real work – which is thinking.”
As for TV-viewing, Clive says he watches it only “once in a blue moon.” That should tell us something!