Which week in '82 did full blown production of the Spectrum start?

cmonkey

Hi

Probably a long shot but does anybody have any hard evidence as to exactly which week in 1982 that full blown production of Issue 1's started? I know that the machine was announced to the world on April 23rd but I would have imagined that the production run would have started shortly after that.

Anyone?

Cheers

MartynC

From the Sinclair and the Sunrise Technology book.

http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/zxspectrum/spec_sst.htm

"Demand was enormous and although the micro was officially launched in April 1982, it wasn't until June that the first machines began to trickle into the hands of the customers... By July, Sinclair Research was sitting on a backlog of 30,000 orders. Once production had got into full swing at Timex Dundee, the manufacturer was pumping out 5000 units a week. Then, in mid-July, just as supply problems were in sight of being resolved, Timex shut down their entire plant for its three-week annual holiday."

Reading that, production began in June 1982, and was ramped up by the end of June / early July.

cmonkey

Thanks for the quick answer.

martynneillson

Does anyone have any details on how many 16k machines were sold?

The story as I heard it that Sinclair had a supply monopoly on Ram Chips which meant that the Oric 1 launch (at 99 pounds - my keyboard can't do a pound sign) was delayed so that the Spectrum WAS actually the 1st colour computer to be sold in the UK for under 100 quid.

MartynC

martynneillson wrote: »

Does anyone have any details on how many 16k machines were sold?

The story as I heard it that Sinclair had a supply monopoly on Ram Chips which meant that the Oric 1 launch (at 99 pounds - my keyboard can't do a pound sign) was delayed so that the Spectrum WAS actually the 1st colour computer to be sold in the UK for under 100 quid.

Yes, the Spectrum 16Kb was indeed the first sub-?100 colour computer.

Prior to the Oric's launch, Oric said it would undercut Sinclair, with the 16K Oric retailing for ?99.95, ?25 cheaper than the 16K Spectrum, and the 48K Oric would retail for ?169.95, a fiver less than the equivalent Spectrum model.

However, the planned Jan 83 launch was delayed (maybe for the reasons you state). The 48K Oric arrived in March, priced at ?169.95 as planned, yet the 16Kb Oric was delayed further, arriving in May, and it was priced at ?129.95 ? ?30 more than originally planned.

Smelling blood, Sinclair decide to stick the knife in. In May the price of the Spectrum was slashed, with the 16K and 48K models cut to ?99.95 and ?129.95 respectively. Its hand forced, Oric soon dropped its own prices to fall in line.