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IMAGINE SOFTWARE has reduced the retail price of all its products to £3.95. The reduction even includes its new release, Pedro, for the 48K Spectrum and future software developments. A spokesman for the company says:
"We think we should pass the profits we have made in the last year to our customers who, we feel, are paying too much for software at the moment."
Other software houses do not believe the reduction will lead to a price-cutting war. A spokeswoman for Melbourne House, publisher of The Hobbit, says: "We certainly would not reduce our prices. We have to pay the salaries of our staff. If Imagine wants to cut its prices that is up to Imagine but our prices are very fair and we shall keep to them."
The same is true of Quicksilva. A spokesman for that company says: "We do not need to cut our prices."
W H Smith, one of the biggest retailers of computer software, is not concerned about the price cuts. A spokeswoman says: "We get along perfectly well with Imagine. It is one of the biggest and most successful software houses so it must know what it is doing. Dealers who have bought large stocks before the prices went down might be angry but we do not hold too much stock of any of the lines."
The Guild of Software Houses does not share that view. Mike Johnston, secretary of the association, says: "It is potentially damaging to the industry. It will cut margins for profit and there will be less money for development. It is, of course, for people to take whatever action they think is necessary but we will be considering our position very carefully."
Meanwhile, Imagine is having problems due to the termination of an agreement with publisher Marshall Cavendish to provide software for a part-work called Input. The company was to have produced 30 programs for the publication but Marshall Cavendish rejected them. That leaves the company with only a few new programs. A spokesman for Imagine says:
"Marshall Cavendish decided that it did not want to publish the programs with the part-work. The company did not think it would be suitable to do so."
Colin Stokes, former sales manager of Imagine, has been dismissed by the company for allegedly commenting on the 'financial state of Imagine to rival companies or individuals'. An injunction was sought against Stokes to prevent him disclosing information or starting a rival company.
Stokes, who now works for Software Projects, disputes the validity of the contract which he signed with Imagine as it prevents him setting-up his own rival company after leaving Imagine.
THE SINCLAIR Vehicle Project, researching into the electric car, has confirmed that it is negotiating with Hoover regarding the assembly of its first electric car.
It will be assembled under sub-contract at the Hoover plant at Merthyr Tydfil. Sinclair had been negotiating to take over the De Lorean car factory in Northern Ireland but a company spokesman, Barrie Wills, head of the SVP, says:
"The Hoover advanced high-volume assembly capacity and considerable experience with electrical products are ideal for this project."
The first of the Sinclair family of electric vehicles is planned for launch in late 1984 or early 1985, depending on progress of negotiation concerning manufacture.
THE WORLD shortage of microchips has worsened and, as a result, prices have risen. Sinclair Research, however, stresses that the situation has not affected its production either of microcomputers, such as the Spectrum or the QL, or peripherals, such as Interface One. A spokesman for the company says:
"We are having no problems. There is an acute shortage of chips in the world but if people take that into account and order about six months in advance they should have no difficulty.
"If, however, a company orders supplies overnight, they will have difficulty. One would certainly occur if a company underestimated its chip needs. It would be unlikely that it could get supplies quickly."
THE WINNER of the £500 Splat! competition organised by Incentive Software for one of its games is 17-year-old James Tant. The object was to achieve the highest score with Splat, a maze game where the maze moves. The scores were checked using a hi-code generator built into the program which produced a code for each score.
Tant attained a massive 112,930 points and when he visited the Incentive offices to verify the score he did even better. His secret was between five and seven hours on the game every day for three months.
Hundreds of entries were received according to Incentive. The lowest score was 520 points and the average was around 10,500.
The new Incentive competition is to find the first person to complete the Ket Trilogy of adventure games. The prize will be a video recorder.
TIMEX, watchmaker and former distributor of Sinclair computers in the United States, has withdrawn from the computer market. The move has left Sinclair Research with the opportunity to expand its operation in the States and of introducing its marketing strategy there. Sinclair Research, however, has no plans to introduce the Spectrum to the American market.
A spokesman for Timex Corp explained the reasons for the withdrawal. He says that 1984 will be a year of turmoil in the market. "We believe instability in the market will cause the value of inventories to decline, making it difficult to make a reasonable profit."
Timex also believes that the instability of the market will cause a strain on trade relations between retailers and manufacturers. Other Timex product lines are doing well, according to the company, so it can divert money marked previously for the computer market to other divisions of its business.
Sinclair Research sees it as unlikely that any of the problems cited by Timex will affect it. A spokesman for the company says: "Sinclair Research does not believe that the so-called instability will affect the QL market."
Andrew Hewson |
ANDREW HEWSON and John Hardman received the award for the Best Computer Book 1984 at the recent Computer Trade Association Awards ceremony.
The winning book was 40 Best Machine Code Routines for the ZX Spectrum which, because of its success, is now being published in German and Spanish.
The award was presented by Trade and Industry Secretary John Butcher to Hewson, author of the Sinclair User Helpline.
HAS THE QL finally arrived? At the time of going to press a spokesman for Sinclair Research was confident some customers would receive their computers by the beginning of April, but declined to estimate how many orders would be fulfilled.
The delays have caused a reduction in orders received, though the number is well in excess of 10,000. Customers ordering QLs in March received acknowledgements with expected delivery dates in June, when monthly production should be nearing the promised 20,000 units.
It was also expected that the ZX Microdrive and the Interface 1 were to be made available during April at retail outlets including W H Smith, Boots, Menzies and Prism Microproducts. Sinclair Research is anxious to scotch the myth that Microdrives are difficult to obtain.
BASICARE, the company which produced the stack modules for the ZX-81 and Spectrum, has gone into voluntary liquidation. The move resulted partly through financial problems and because one of the partners wanted to do other things, according to Peter Choy, the other partner in the company. He says:
"Benny Leung did not want to continue with Basicare and as part of our agreement we decided to go into liquidation.
"I have the technical knowledge in the company, so I will be continuing to build the modules and sell them through a different company."
The modules include one which contains David Husband's ZX-81 Forth. That will be used for control applications. It will be a unit to complete the stack tower for which Basicare is famous but it will also be possible to use it alone.
THE ROMOX electronic software distribution system, from Prism Technology, has begun initial test operation in chain stores round the country. The Romox is a cartridge ROM system with a difference. The customer inserts a blank cartridge into the machine, which then programs it with a piece of software. The customer can take home the newly-programmed cartridge and, when finished with it, can return it to the store to be re-programmed with a new piece of software.
At first, Romox is likely to go to retailers which have had previous dealings with Prism. They include W H Smith, Boots and Dixons and the stores are likely to be situated in the affluent south-east of England. Prism is distributing 40 titles for the Romox but the list of titles will be increased as more prime U.K. software houses make agreements with Prism to have their software channelled on to ROM cartridge.
Prism will not be short of American inventiveness either, as 300 titles from the States are to be used with the new distribution system.
Prism feels that ROM cartridge offers better security than tape or disc storage. It is almost impossible to pirate copies of programs held on ROM. That will provide an added incentive to software houses wanting to put their software on Romox but who are also security-conscious.
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THE GUILD of Software Houses is alarmed because the anti-copying system devised by JLC Data of Barnsley has been seized by the Ministry of Defence.
The device apparently puts a soundtrack over the normal frequencies which make up a program tape and interfere with the tape recorder if someone tries to make illegal copies of a tape. Nick Alexander, chairman of GOSH, says:
"So far, no-one has been able to develop a protection system which works. Because of the Ministry of Defence action it is not possible for us to examine the JLC Data system, but the fact that the Ministry has embargoed it with a secrecy order seems to indicate that it should be taken seriously".
Alexander suggests that if the system works and the Ministry does not release it, the Government should compensate the software industry for the £100 million the industry might lose because of software piracy the system might prevent. He says:
"It seems outrageous that the Government is, by this action, endorsing and giving support to computer pirates, from simple games piracy to industrial piracy".
Meanwhile, Jim Lamont, creator of the JLC device, is trying to side-step the Ministry of Defence and the Patent Office. Patents on the device could be banned until 1985 while the two Government departments decide whether his invention is a risk to British security.
He says that he has an alternative to his anti-piracy device which he does not intend to patent. The only problem is that the device will not be protected from industrial piracy.
The Copyright Reform Group, whose members consist of pressure groups and unions concerned with the way in which copyright laws are enforced, has petitioned the Prime Minister asking that a Bill for a reformed Copyright Law be included in the 1984-85 legislative programme.
Members of the newly-formed group include GOSH, Equity, the Musicians' Union and the British Copyright Council.
THE ZX-81 and the Spectrum will soon be available in South Korea, following an agreement between Sinclair Research and Samsung Electronics.
The agreement is effective immediately and the first products are expected to arrive on the Korean market later in the year. The computers will be assembled and distributed locally.
Sir Clive Sinclair, chairman and chief executive of Sinclair Research, signed an agreement with the president of Samsung in London. He says:
"The link gives us access to a market of considerable potential and the comprehensive support of a powerful and highly-experienced partner".
The ZX-81 and the Spectrum each have achieved one million sales world-wide. They are available in more than 50 countries.