What if the QL came to America?

[Crayon21]

I understand that IBM compatibles were still out of the reach of many people at the time, what if this computer was released in America? Would it've taken market share from commodore? What if it took on IBM?

[Spinnetti]

ermmm... It was released in America. I have one. It was not successful.

[swensont]

I bought my QL in April 1986 from Sunset Electronics in S.F. About the only folks that knew about it were those already involved in the Timex/Sinclair community. To know more, see my paper: "The Sinclair QL in North America"

http://swensont.epizy.com/QLinNA.pdf

Tim

[desiv]

I was watching an Amiga history type video and one of the guys was saying that one of the reasons for Commodore buying Amiga was that one of the higher ups at Commodore (Was Jack still there then? I can't remember who it was supposed to have been.) had heard about the QL so he wanted something quickly to compete in the post 8-bit era.
He didn't think Commodore had time to develop something on their own.

Of course, Commodore had that "we need to be wary of the competition; they are coming" attitude. Especially early.

[Crayon21]

I was watching an Amiga history type video and one of the guys was saying that one of the reasons for Commodore buying Amiga was that one of the higher ups at Commodore (Was Jack still there then? I can't remember who it was supposed to have been.) had heard about the QL so he wanted something quickly to compete in the post 8-bit era.
He didn't think Commodore had time to develop something on their own.

Of course, Commodore had that "we need to be wary of the competition; they are coming" attitude. Especially early.

It was actually the MSX that Jack was afraid of, not the QL. As far as competition, I doubt Commodore even knew about the QL. Jack wanted to go after the Spectrum. Unfortunately, the plus 4 line was...questionable. A better basic, 121 colors and...no sprites and sparse sound. two steps forward, two steps back.

https://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/hvic.ht ... %20earnest.

as for the Spectrum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICiZbUypMlQ

[1024MAK]

Hmm, that article is hardly an independent view. Where did Jack Tramiel move to? That would be Atari where he turned it around, launching newly styled 8 bit Atari machines and the ST line, resulting in Atari becoming one of Commodore's main competitors.

And The 8-bit Guy has some strange ideas and opinions.

The thing is that the USA and Europe were different markets during the 1980s as far as home computers were concerned.

The fact is that Sinclair misjudged the market for the QL. And some of the design decisions were questionable. At least by the time it was actually available in mid 1984. Hence the QL was not successful even in the U.K.

And as you say, Commodore also made some decisions that turned out to not be very good ones, the C16, C116 and Plus 4 models being just some examples.

The ZX Spectrum (and the clones and compatibles) was overall, one of the best selling home computers. Yes, the Commodore 64 sold more, but then the 64 was the best selling home computer in the USA as well as being sold worldwide.

Sinclair and then Timex Sinclair not having sorted out how they could comply with FCC requirements early enough, meant that no ZX Spectrum model was ever sold in any significant numbers in the USA. The T/S 2068 being too late to the market.

The Japanese companies and some European companies did launch MSX computers in both the U.K. and Europe. But the MSX machines in the U.K. were not successful. Being stuck behind the ZX Spectrum, 64, Acorn BBC and Electron and Amstrad CPC 464.

And after the mid 1980s, in the USA, increasingly IBM (and clones / compatibles) and / or consoles became the main competitors to 8 bit and then 16/32 bit home computers.

In Europe, Atari with their ST range and Commodore with their Amiga range were seen as the upgrade path from the 8 bits for a time. But eventually the PC and / or consoles took hold.

Now, these forums are primary for people interested in the ZX80, ZX81, clones, compatibles and similar computers. With sections also for the ZX Spectrum and the Z88.

For QL discussions, a better place is the QL Forum.

Mark

[jdfan1000]

And The 8-bit Guy has some strange ideas and opinions.

That's an understatement.