| Sinclairvoyance |
WHEN THE QL computer was launched at the beginning of this year, Sinclair Research announced that the first deliveries were expected to take place at the end of February. Only a week or two later a spokesman for the company admitted that the demand was already greater than anticipated and they were "beginning to think about delivery problems and how to avoid them".
In March the company had, presumably, stopped thinking about avoiding those problems and had started to think of suitable excuses to explain the delays already incurred. Last-minute hitches in the operating system were disclosed, together with faults in one of the integrated circuits. By mid-April the company was talking, not too confidently, of deliveries at the end of the month, or possibly May or June.
As the French say, plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose or, to put it another way have we not heard that before somewhere?
It was, of course, less than two years ago when the ubiquitous Sinclair spokespeople were being wheeled out, rather like ventriloquists' dolls, to utter exactly the same vague excuses for Spectrum delivery delays. Two months after the Spectrum launch the official word from Sinclair was that delays had been caused "by the time needed to have production running smoothly" and problems had been exacerbated by the discovery of "a very obscure fault" in the design.
| 'The computers on show at the January press launch were not fully operational' |
As the waiting period lengthened the excuses grew more feeble. In the October, 1982 issue of Sinclair User Clive Sinclair, as he then was, replied to the critics and apologised to his customers: "We are confident that our present backlog will be cleared by the end of September and hope that you will see current delays in the context of our successful delivery of more than 500,000 computers in the last two years".
In the event, delays continued until the end of October, with some customers complaining of waiting more than 20 weeks for their Spectrums to arrive. Since the launch six months had elapsed before Sinclair Research could ensure smooth production of the machine and yet throughout that period the company had continued to advertise the Spectrum with a promise of a 28-day turnaround on orders.
When the Advertising Standards Authority made its report later in 1982 it declared a record number of complaints received concerning non-delivery of Spectrums and went on to criticise the company for repeatedly advertising a product which it could not supply within the specified time.
Sinclair User, too, was inundated with letters from furious readers and in Sinclairvoyance, in October, 1982, we summed up the feelings of the public: "The company can advance any number of excuses but the fact remains that it has not been able to substantiate the claims made at the time of the launch ... Sinclair Research has had experience of two previous machines yet still seems unable to profit from experience".
Eighteen months later and with yet another computer under its belt, Sinclair Research appears even more determined not to look back and learn from the mistakes of the past. In all respects save one, the company policy has remained the same, presumptuously assuming that customers are content to await the delayed delivery of the QL and attempting to placate the irate with promises of a gift as compensation. Remember that £10 voucher given to those who suffered the Spectrum delays?
Only in its advertising has the company acknowledged past errors. Heedful of the ASA breathing down its neck, it has inserted in recent advertisements for the QL the phrase: "Due to demand, delivery may take more than 28 days". At least the uninitiated now know what to expect.
One thing, however, is certain and that is that the computers on show at the January press launch were not fully operational and were only representing ideas-in-progress. Time will tell whether those ideas have come to fruition.
In all the excitement it is hardly surprising that little attention has been paid to the problems which currently beset the Spectrum. The 1983 pre-Christmas boom in Spectrum sales and the subsequent shortfall in supplies have apparently, and unexpectedly, carried over into 1984. Sales have remained high and many people are even now finding new Spectrums hard to come by.
| 'Little attention has been paid to the problems which currently beset the Spectrum' |
While some retailers are claiming that they are receiving as many machines as they can handle, others report that they can obtain only a percentage of their requirements, a percentage which in some cases is as low as one-fifth the quantity ordered. The small independent computer stores are the worst affected, with some unable to get any at all.
There is also reason to believe that the number of faulty Spectrums has increased and retailers have estimated that returned Spectrums could be as high as 25 percent of the total sold, considerably higher than the normal failure rate anticipated by Sinclair Research. Sinclair User has received many complaints from new Spectrum owners who are having to wait two months or more for faulty machines to be repaired or replaced.
All areas of industry suffer problems from time to time and the computer industry, being relatively new and continually covering fresh ground, is more susceptible than most. All the more reason, then, for computer manufacturers and their supporting companies to be circumspect in releasing new products and to improve their methods of handling unforeseen hitches.
On the other hand, a cynic might argue that the marketing strategy of companies like Sinclair Research is not only justified but also highly successful. New products are launched months before they are ready and in the intervening period interest is generated and orders pour in. When production eventually gets under way it can be geared carefully so that supply always falls a little short of demand and the products are endowed consequently with the added attraction of having rarity value.