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This is where user generated apps got started...
- Thread starter iHarrison
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Umm, the Apple II had been out for three years before the first ZX80 came out, and four years before the ZX81. So no, I don't think that's where anything got started.
The Timex/Sinclair was no thing of beauty. It was shoddily built, with cartridges that fell out and a hard-to-key membrane keyboard. But oh so cheap...a fraction of the cost of the Apple II...and very popular, briefly, for that reason.
The Timex/Sinclair was no thing of beauty. It was shoddily built, with cartridges that fell out and a hard-to-key membrane keyboard. But oh so cheap...a fraction of the cost of the Apple II...and very popular, briefly, for that reason.
Ok, ok, Mr Pedantic, I meant that was where the culture of wide-spread user app generation started. The culture that gave rise to the community of thousands of developers of Mac OS & iOS apps (and, indeed, Windows apps & Android apps) that we see today.
The Apple II was a fine machine, but it had the same problem as the Lisa; it wasn't particularly affordable when it first appeared on the scene, retailing at US$1298.
The ZX80, on the other hand was - as you yourself said - far cheaper, initially priced at GB£99.95 (approx US$212 at the time).
If the first home microcomputers had remained as expensive as the Apple II or Lisa, personal computing (including "PCs" and Macs) would be a decade behind where it is now.
That is these under-powered, clunky, ugly, semi-reliable jumped-up calculators' legacy to the world.
(Also, it was entirely a Sinclair machine; Timex only made clones under licence.)
The Apple II was a fine machine, but it had the same problem as the Lisa; it wasn't particularly affordable when it first appeared on the scene, retailing at US$1298.
The ZX80, on the other hand was - as you yourself said - far cheaper, initially priced at GB£99.95 (approx US$212 at the time).
If the first home microcomputers had remained as expensive as the Apple II or Lisa, personal computing (including "PCs" and Macs) would be a decade behind where it is now.
That is these under-powered, clunky, ugly, semi-reliable jumped-up calculators' legacy to the world.
(Also, it was entirely a Sinclair machine; Timex only made clones under licence.)
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Perhaps so.
I suppose the Sinclair and the Apple II were really at the opposite ends of the spectrum. There were a lot of other manufacturers that filled the gap (TI and Atari and the like) and those probably felt a lot of pressure from the cheaper Sinclair design. A lot of people cut their teeth on those machines, too.
But saying that the Apple II was too expensive is not realistic. It was a tenth the price of a Lisa...and it outsold and outlasted the Sinclairs and Timexes and dozens of other cheaper machines.
I suppose the Sinclair and the Apple II were really at the opposite ends of the spectrum. There were a lot of other manufacturers that filled the gap (TI and Atari and the like) and those probably felt a lot of pressure from the cheaper Sinclair design. A lot of people cut their teeth on those machines, too.
But saying that the Apple II was too expensive is not realistic. It was a tenth the price of a Lisa...and it outsold and outlasted the Sinclairs and Timexes and dozens of other cheaper machines.
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Never even heard of the Sinclair machines myself at that time. Cut my teeth on the TI-99/4 and /4A.
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If this is what you meant...then it's best to actually include that thought in your original post...since we cannot read minds!
- Nick
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