| Sinclairvoyance |
THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Sinclair Research of an all-out £4 million advertising attack on the media in the autumn, together with giveaway Spectrum and microdrive software packages, is likely to breathe more life into the comatose home micro market than any other development this year. It is a much needed shot in the arm which, for some companies, has come almost too late.
The campaign, larger than any staged previously by the company, will include coverage on TV for the first time, as well as the national and computer press, and the Sunday colour supplements.
For openers Sinclair is promoting the Spectrum Six Pack, a package of six classic software programs given away with each 48K Spectrum sold from mid-August until stocks run out. Sinclair plans to give out £14 million of software in that way and expects the offer to secure once and for all its already enviable share of the home computer market. "We think the Six Pack promotion will knock the competition for six", said retail business manager Anton Boyes ingenuously.
Advertising will also support the QL and the flat-screen TV - remember that? - both of which should be on sale in the shops by the time you read this. Lest that sounds too good to be true managing director Nigel Searle has added the predictable rider: "We anticipate that demand will inevitably outstrip supply." No, really? To meet that demand QL production will rise to 50,000 units a month and that of the TV to 20,000, so perhaps delays - that quintessential Sinclair hallmark - will be shortlived.
Possibly more interesting is the extra boost the company will give to sales of the infamous ZX microdrives. Similar to the Six Pack offer, the Expansion System is a package of hardware and software, including an Interface 1, a microdrive and, at no extra cost, four programmed cartridges - Tasword 2, Masterfile, 3D Ant Attack and Games Designer. On the fact of it, a pretty good deal, though it has come a year too late.
Notoriously difficult things to use at the best of times, the microdrives have not fulfilled users' expectations, and even now, more than a year after they were launched, there is precious little cartridge software available. Independent manufacturers simply have not followed Sinclair's lead, possibly because of the much whispered-about cartridge supply problems - hinted at by Peter Norman of Psion in his August letter to Sinclair User.
On top of that, attempts by owners to transfer commercial software to cartridge have been frustrated by anxious software houses wielding copyright laws and getting excited - often justifiably - about small outfits advertising tape-to-microdrive copy programs. Consequently, the microdrives can be used only to store your own programs. The Expansion System appears to be an attempt by Sinclair Research to get the ball rolling again.
Noticeably absent from the list of offers and promotions is anything relating to the Interface 2. Whatever did happen to the Interface 2?
Besides knocking out the competition and revitalising some less-successful products, the massive advertising campaign is a sign that Sinclair Research has decided to lose its low-profile mail order image and consolidate its position as a household name. It could also be seen as a last ditch attempt to improve profits in the current financial year after the disappointing results from the year ending March 1984. Profits for that year are not likely to exceed the £14 million made in the previous year, and could even be down on that figure. It is doubtful whether the proposed stock market flotation in 1985 will now take place.
Putting the reasons for the Big Push aside, what results is it likely to have?
The most immediate will be an extra half million Sinclair users, and that should be enough to keep the most desperate of software houses happy - though it means an extra half million potential pirates too. Possibly it might ensure that microdrives become an acceptable form of mass-storage rather than something you impress your friends with.
But the long term effects are more far-reaching. Strange as it may seem, there are at present some people who still think a Spectrum has pretty colours and a pot of gold at the end. No, not Imagine - real people who actually use TVs for watching Dallas and not playing Alien Genocide. This advertising campaign could change all that. Sinclair could even become the generic word for computers, as in "of course my tax returns aren't correct, I've sinclaired them."
By December it will be possible to get up in the morning, open the paper and have a dead-flesh keyboard grinning up at you. Switch on your dinky little pocket TV and there - sandwiched between Roland Rat and Henry Kelly - another 48K wonder. Even the cornflakes aren't sacred. Sinclair has launched a major back-of-pack promotion with Kelloggs to be carried on 30 million packs and reach eight million UK households. Not forgetting the promotion already being carried on Macleans toothpaste tubes. Is this the kind of world you want your children to grow up in?
The best to you each morning.
Bill Scolding