Clive Sinclair, who brought computing to the masses with the ZX Spectrum, has died

Clive SinclairEngineer, inventor and businessman Who was instrumental in bringing home computers to the massesHe passed away today at the age of 81. According to his daughter, Belinda Sinclair, Clive died at his London home this morning after suffering from a long illness.

You have to pull a lot of newspaper archives if you are very young, but in short, he was the creator of the computer ZX Spectrumwhich, in addition to being easy to use, was affordable, so it became popular very quickly, and like many other brilliant people in the sector, he dropped out of school at the age of 17 and went to work for four years as a tech journalist to raise funds and set up your company Sinclair Radionics.

Clive Siclair has spent his entire life creating innovative ways to bring electronics into the home, and one of his most popular products is pocket calculatorOh Portable TVsHe is best known for promoting the home computer.

Their story begins with these computers being sold in British stores at relatively reasonable prices, and we are talking about prices £100 (117 euros) of timeWhen the competition sold them Five times more expensive. The first was the ZX80 and sold 50,000 units, while its successor, the ZX81, cost 69.95 pounds and sold 250,000 units.

Despite its strong pricing, Clive Sinclair told The Guardian in 2010:In two or three years, we made a profit of 14 million pounds in one year“.

Clive Sinclair in his C5 electric car

Basically, if you were a “player” in the 80s, or you bought a file ZX Spectrum 48 kg Or its rival, the Commodore 64. This computer will be sold 5 million units in the UK aloneBASIC programming language was used and at this time using audiobooks was the most modern way to install your games, nothing from Steam.

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Without going any further, until the mid-1980s She launched her three-wheeled electric car. At the time that was crazy, especially in terms of safety when driving a vehicle below other drivers’ line of sight or being exposed to the elements. From expecting to sell 100,000 cars a year, to your company going bankrupt, He subsequently sold his computer business to Amstrad.

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