TS-260 vs ZX Spectrum 128K
1 message · 2008-01-09 → 2008-01-09 · Yahoo Group era · View archive on archive.org
Participants: Adam Trionfo
Preserved from the Timex/Sinclair 2068 Yahoo Group (2001–2019), which is no longer online. Text reproduced from the archive.org archive; email addresses masked.
Messages
1. RE: TS-260 vs ZX Spectrum 128K
Adam Trionfo · Wed, 9 Jan 2008 08:34:
Bill Loguidice, on Wed 1/09/08 at 8:12 AM, wrote:
>>
I think part of the problem was the success Timex had with the Sinclair 1000. Lots of units were sold because they were cheap, but just as many people were turned off by the unapproachable nature of the system and poor specs.
>>
I can vouch for this. While I never owned a Timex 1000, the people that DID own them quickly put them into closets. People used to joke about them. The Timex 1000 had no sound and the graphics were black and white. Sure, WE know why. It was to keep costs down. Many people, back then, thought that anything called a "computer" would be like a computer on Star Trek. I'm not kidding. They wanted it to do everything. This idea was also fueled by the popular press. I'm not sure how popular the idea of running your house with a computer was in Europe, but somehow this idea was made popular here in the U.S.. That's just one example. People who bought computers around the time that the Timex 1000 came out didn't want a computer, they wanted a COMPUTER. What they got was a small device, that to them, wasn't much different than a calculator that you hooked up to your TV set.
Once the idea that a Timex computer was really just a calculator got into the public's mindset it was hard to shake free. If Timex had released something like an Amiga in 1983 they probably could not have sold it. Unless they made it REAL big, like the size of a car. For with the Timex 1000 Timex "proved" that small equals bad. Maybe BIG would have equaled good.
Adam
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