Twice each year the American consumer electronics industry has a giant show in which manufacturers from here and abroad show their new and upcoming products to their dealers and the press. In recent years over 100,000 people have been in attendance at these shows.
The most recent CES was held in early June in Chicago. SUM attended the show in hopes of getting a better feel for the industry, of seeing Sinclair, and of making contacts with possible suppliers of Timex and Sinclair products. We were only partly successful in our goals.
First, several vendors claimed to have seen members of the Sinclair U.S. team but Sinclair had no booth, and apparently was not showing the QL or any other products. The only exception was the new little Sinclair electric car which was seen by some and apparently was the only visible presence of Sinclair.
Second, the show itself was simply awesome! Around 2,000 manufacturers were showing their wares to over 100,000 dealers and the press. They ranged from small two-man manufacturers from Hong Kong to the giants of the video and audio industry who had exhibits larger than most audio/video stores. Of course our special interest was in the separate McCormick Hall where there were three floors of computer and related products.
The computer section of the show was the smallest it has been in five years’ we were told. IBM, Apple, and Kaypro were not there, but Commodore had a huge booth and at the last minute Atari set up a display (though we never could find it). Obviously Commodore is counting heavily on their new 128 machine as they were showing almost nothing else; there was no hint of any “Macintosh-type” machine.
Software companies seemed to have been in abundance. Most of what was being shown were games for the Commodore. However, a very large Batteries Included booth featured more serious software for Atari and Apple as well as Commodore. Two fascinating programs which would be great on the Timex machines were “The Newsroom” by Springboard and “Print Shop” by Brodurbund. I doubt that either will be exported to England for the Spectrum. The Batteries Included software package of word processor, filer, and graphics would be the most powerful software available if converted to Timex/Sinclair machines yet listed for only $50. I am planning on writing to some of these companies and urging them to consider the Timex and Sinclair markets and hope other TS owners will do the same.
The most interesting computer from our vantage point was the Amstrad 128 from England. It is scheduled to be released in September here. It was very much like a Spectrum with a different keyboard and a built-in 3″ disk drive like the one we reviewed in the May issue. Software is not compatible with the Spectrum, of course. But its graphics were impressive and it is expected to be sold as a package–128k computer with parallel interface and disk drive, a color monitor, and a word processing package for $795.
Products for the Timex/Sinclair line were non-existent with but one exception. We did visit with Linda Fisher of “Computer Shopper” which runs TS articles each month. Also, Softsync was in attendance–a company begun by a fashion model with one software program for the TS-1000 and which has now moved on to a range of Commodore and Apple software. Sue Currier, Softsync’s owner, was very interested in what is going on in the TS market today, but gave no indication that her company would return to it. Activision had a large booth advertising their games software. A brochure they were distributing listed several games for the Spectrum, but inquiry revealed that they were “only for the international market”.
Now for the good news! Tucked away in a corner of the great hall was a very small booth which we almost missed. In it were a Sinclair QL computer running software off a disk drive along with a Spectrum Plus.
It was the booth of Kempston Micro Electronics, one of the largest suppliers of hardware peripherals for the Spectrum in England. Kempston’s director, AB Pandaal was there all alone, and seemed to be as glad to see us as we were to see him! He had not found much interest in their products until we arrived. Over an hour of conversation informed him of the improving market here in the U.S. and he indicated that Kempston would love to adapt their products for the 2068 and sell over here. Their product line is extensive and constantly growing with parallel and serial interfaces for the Spectrum and QL, joystick interfaces for the Spectrum, and a disk drive interface for the QL.
Watching the QL run was fascinating. I was not prepared for the minute size of the microdrive cartridges or the speed and smoothness of the graphics. Pandaal was actually running an American version of the QL supplied to him by Sinclair. With the addition of the Kempston interface and a disk drive, it certainly was a desirable package.
Our overall impression at CES this year is that the whole computer market is “hurting” right now with some notable exceptions. Nothing new we saw made us’ want to trade in our 2068s and Spectrums. The failure of Sinclair to show product was disappointing and hard to understand with the QL going on sale in the U.S. the’ same month as the show.