At the time (1982 to 1983), IBM PCs were very expensive in the U.K. and only available in low numbers. So much so that, Sirius Systems Technology were able to sell their Victor 9000 / ACT Sirius 1 PCs (that ran MS-DOS, but were not compatible with IBM PCs). Indeed, they became the most popular 16-bit business computer in Europe, especially in Britain and Germany. These were most definitely business computers, the display was good on its 12” monitor, but it was monochrome. And they were considerably more expensive than a QL, at £2754 (1983 price).Turtle_Quality wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:34 am I remember IBM started selling PCs in the early 80's, and anyone going up against them would be at a serious disadvantage, their machines weren't great, but you knew they would be supported for years. Why invest in Sinclair business machines that might disappear from the market next year ? Save a few 100 pounds on machines, but spend a month on developing your application, then maybe start all over again a year or 2 later - too risky.
IBM started selling their PC range in the U.K. from 1983. So, if Sinclair had actually produced a good quality and useable machine for a good price (significantly cheaper than IBM etc.), and without all the problems that the QL actually had, it is possible that they could have had far better success.
The key points for me are these:
- It had to be available to sell immediately when launched, and be reasonably bug free.
- It had to look like an item of office equipment, and have a normal keyboard that you could touch type on.
- It had to use standard floppy disks, not odd, completely bespoke microdrives.
- The video output needed to be standard video, so that any standard (at the time, 15625Hz/50Hz 625 line) monitors could be used.
- A standard parallel (Centronics) printer port would have helped.