What Happened to the Timex Sinclair 1000? Why the Timex Sinclair 1000 Disappeared

The Timex Sinclair 1000 was not killed by price alone, whatever the 1984 headlines said. America's first computer under $100 vanished because Timex sold it the way it sold watches, and its owners needed far more than a watch. In July 1982 the black wedge reached drugstores at $99.95. Timex sold more than half a million in five months, and its toll-free line jammed the phones into Connecticut. Eighteen months later some stores let it go for $15, and by February 1984 Timex had quit computers. Inside this video: • Why did a hotline built to find dealers fill with owners asking for help? • How did a 1981 British design leave Timex stuck at the bottom of the price war? • Why did the color Timex Sinclair 2068 reach stores too late? • What became of Daniel Ross, the man who launched it? • How did Timex return to computing in 1994, on a wristwatch? If you owned one, you probably remember the stripes on the family TV while a program loaded, and the memory pack that crashed when someone bumped the table. Share what you typed into yours. This story proves a plain rule: a computer is only as strong as the help behind it. Subscribe for careful stories about the machines that came home with American families. Sources: Timex/Sinclair 1000 User Manual - Timex Computer Corporation, 1982: https://archive.org/details/TS1000Use... Computers Dropped by Timex - David E. Sanger, The New York Times, 1984: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/22/bu... Timex's Marketing Cited for Poor Sales - The New York Times, 1984: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/23/bu... Timex Plans Computer to Retail at About $100 - Susan C. Faludi, The New York Times, 1982: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/21/bu... #TimexSinclair1000 #TimexSinclair #TS1000 #ZX81 #Timex #HomeComputer #RetroComputing #1980sComputers #VintageComputers #ComputerHistory Disclaimer: The voiceover used in this video was generated using AI.