Sinclair Research
| Former type | Limited |
|---|---|
| Industry | Consumer electronics |
| Fate | Acquired by Amstrad |
| Founded | Cambridge, England, UK (1973) |
| Founder(s) | Sir Clive Sinclair |
| Defunct | 2021 |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
| Key people | Nigel Searle (Director 1979-1986) |
| Products |
Sinclair ZX Spectrum Sinclair QL |
| Employees |
140 (1980s) 1 (1997) |
| FCC grantee code | EHF |
Sinclair Research was a British consumer electronics company mostly known for producing the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
Originally incorporated as Westminster Mail Order Ltd., it was later renamed Sinclair Instrument Ltd., then Science of Cambridge Ltd., then Sinclair Computers Ltd., and finally Sinclair Research Ltd.
Sir Clive Sinclair entered the home market in 1980 with the Sinclair ZX80, available in both kit and ready built forms, then released the updated Sinclair ZX81 in 1981. In 1982 the company had their biggest success with the release of the ZX Spectrum, the biggest selling computer in the UK. Later on they released the ZX Spectrum+, which was the 48K Spectrum repackaged in a different form factor with a somewhat better keyboard and a reset button on the side.
In January 1984 Sinclair announced the infamous Sinclair QL, a 16-bit computer with looked much like the ZX Spectrum+ but was based on a 68008 CPU. Development however was behind schedule and the product only won the company bad press; production was suspended in 1985 and the price was slashed by 50% by the end of the year.
In 1985 the company released in Spain the ZX Spectrum 128K in collaboration with Spanish distributor Investrónica, with Sinclair withholding release in UK until January 1986 due to local retailers stocking large amounts of unsold units of the Spectrum+.
Sinclair had released the iconic Sinclair C5 in January 1985 but sales weren't as good as expected, causing purposedly-created Sinclair Vehicles Ltd. to enter liquidation the same year. This disaster, combined with the failure of the QL and other products eventually resulted in the Sinclair brand name and assets being sold to Amstrad in 1986.
