PC pioneers: Sir Clive Sinclair

Over the 30 years or so that I've written about technology (and God, does that make me sound old), I've met, heard from and talked with a lot of visionaries and pioneers - including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Alan Sugar, Michael Dell , Andy Grove and Carly Fiorina.

But none have had the technological insight, quirky charisma or entrepreneurial flourish as British computing pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair. I first became aware of Clive Sinclair when I was a boy in Canada - and was intrigued by his radio kits (such as the Sinclair Micromatic) in the late 1960s. I did eventually buy a crystal radio kit (and I can't honestly say that it was one of his, but I can say that his name stuck with me) - and it fueled an interest in technology and gadgets that have stayed with me throughout my entire life.

Even then, it was clear that Sir Clive was pretty unique:

• He had a flair for marketing
• He liked to release new products quickly
• He liked to sell products by mail order (and, as I found out later, would sometimes use the proceeds from the mail order money to pay for manufacturing of the products that customers had ordered)

Another theme that continued throughout what I've seen of Sir Clive's career - and it was as much in evidence in his early career as his later endeavors - was the willingness to take chances. As a result, his career enjoyed a 'boom and bust' quality - throughout which he has never stopped being inventive. That's why his inventions included:

• One of the first portable CRT televisions (which sadly came at a time when LCD technology was able to make it irrelevant)
• One of the earliest mass-produced electric vehicles (a 'trike' called the Sinclair C5, the launch of which I attended at London's Alexandra Palace in 1985)
• The hugely popular Sinclair Spectrum colour computer (a must-have for any self-respecting British computer user throughout much of the mid-1980s)
• The pioneering, but much-troubled Sinclair QL (which included subscription to a 'user's club' newsletter I edited for Sir Clive in the 1980s)
• A lightweight folding bicycle (which remains a passion of Sir Clive's even today)
• A pioneering, lightweight laptop computer called the Z88

So even though his most commercially successful enterprise - his computer business - was sold off in the late 1980s amidst financial troubles to British electronics entrepreneur Alan Sugar (whom is also a marketing genius of a different sort), Sir Clive's passion for inventing has never waned. And I have to admire that.

In my interviews with him, he was always quiet, thoughtful and yet full of enthusiasm. He was also largely without the brashness and self-promotion that I've sometimes seen from his American counterparts. It could be argued, for example, that Michael Dell probably learned a lot from Sir Clive's experience in building and selling computers via mail-order (which was the original business model for Dell - although admittedly it probably owed as much to the Sears Catalog model as to Sir Clive).

Anyway, in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Sinclair C5 electric vehicle (which was launched on January 10, 1985 - so I've only got a couple of months before we're out of the 25th anniversary year), I'm going to make this the first of several posts about one of the more intriguing people I've ever interviewed - and I'll dig out some of my old interviews and notes to make the next post a little more lively. Consider this the scene-setter. And I'll be inviting friends with their own experiences of Sir Clive to post their thoughts about him.