Clive Sinclair was born with solder in his veins. At the age of 22, he founded his first company, Sinclair Radionics, which made radio and amplifier kits for the electrical hobbyist.

Within six years, 'Uncle Clive' - as he affectionately became known in the computer business - had developed a reputation for innovative small business. His 'small' business in the late Sixties included a palm-sized transistor radio and a range of amplifier kits.

The little radio and his 1972 release of the first pocket calculator - The Executive - confirmed his prediliction for miniaturing consumer products and selling them at a miniature price in mass quantities.

By 1976 Mr. Sinclair was taking on so many projects that he found himself beginning to take a few losses; chip supplies for his Black Watch digital wristwatch were drying up and his pocket TV project was in trouble.

The National Enterprise Board agreed to put some money into the kitty to help Mr. Sinclair out of his project problems and the 2-inch screen pocket TV made it to the marketplace in 1977.

In 1979, after a disagreement with the Enterprise Board, Mr. Sinclair resigned from Sinclair Radionics and established Sinclair Research, devoted to consumer electronics and personal computer production.

In 1980, Sinclair Research launched its first computer, the ZX80 - followed one year later by a modified version called the ZX81 - both were small black and white computers selling for under £100.

In April 1982, the ZX Spectrum was launched to add a cheap colour computer to Sinclair's range. It was met with rave reviews and hailed as a breakthrough in low-priced colour computing.

In an interview with PCN in May 1983, Mr. Sinclair said that he thought his computers - at least the ZX81 model - survived because they were inexpensive.

"If the '81 were anything but highly competitive, it would cease to survive," he said. And he added that price reductions - such as the spring 1983 cut on the Spectrum's price - were made whenever possible to keep the machines competitive.

"It's our policy to reduce prices when we're able to and not wait. When costs come down, we bring down our prices - we do this even if the product's selling very well, as it was in the case of the Spectrum. If we failed to reduce the prices under those conditions it would simply attract more competition."

Because the machine is inexpensive, and its 'soft' keyboard makes it quite bashable, Mr. Sinclair said he's surprised more schools aren't using the Spectrum for teaching. "Schools tend to like to have machines that are designed for schools even if they're not as good as other machines available," he said.

He added that the BBC Micro was recommended for secondary schools and that primary schools were advised to follow suit in order to keep the software and interfaces consistent across schools. Mr. Sinclair also said that educators and school districts were led to believe they were getting a good deal in buying BBCs, although when the price of VDUs was added in, the savings were comparatively small.

"Really everything was against the Spectrum on that one. We are most anxious to serve the needs of the educational world. We've got to rethink our strategy."

With the incredible success of his computers, Mr. Sinclair has been drawn away from a day-to-day role in the development of computers at Sinclair Research and now fulfils more of a 'policy-making' function that keeps him at the company's London office taking about plans for electric cars, flat-screen TVs and business-type micros.

He has also been looked on by the British financial community as something of a guru and has been known to give his opinions on government policy towards British computer manufacturers.

The everyday running of Sinclair's microcomputer side is now left to Sinclair Research managing director Nigel Searle (interviewed this issue). And Mr. Searle has taken quite an interest in further development of the Spectrum, announcing the development of plug-in cartridge software for the machine, the release of the Microdrive low-cost storage unit and possible updates to the machine's video circuitry.

Mr. Searle has been with Sinclair since 1972 and for a while looked after Sinclair's operations in the US. Sinclair now has a technology licensing agreement with Timex, and all its microcomputer sales in North America are taken care of by that company.

The ZX81 is now available in North America as the Timex TS1000, while the Spectrum is to be launched there as the TS2000 - and an interim TS1500 machine which incorporates some of the features of both the machines will sell for a price inbetween them.

It wasn't always that way. When Sinclair started selling ZX81s to schools two years ago, more than 2,300 of them took advantage of its subsidised computer-buying scheme. The company sold the ZX81s to schools at half-price - with a 16K RAMpack included.

As of spring 1983, more than 25,000 ZX81s had been sold to schools and Sinclair had been encouraging the development of educational software through grants and special offers to summer computer camps for children. One computer camp operator even had an offer than gave camp visitors a free ZX81 for attending a certain number of lessons.

Sinclair Research hoped for similar success with the Spectrum in schools, although statistics indicate that BBC Micros make up 80 per cent of that market. Part of Sinclair's hopes were pinned on a £15 million scheme for 27,000 UK schools that would give Spectrums to one and all.

The offer gave every school that ordered a Spectrum under the government's Micros in Schools project a free ZX printer, a copy of Logo and ten discount vouchers valid until 1984. Sinclair still hopes for a bigger take-up rate among schools as this offer continues.