Computing pioneer Clive Sinclair dies at 81

London - His products included the first portable electronic calculator in 1972, home computers, digital watches and an early version of a flat-screen television.

Clive Sinclair, the British inventor who pioneered the pocket calculator and affordable home computers, reportedly died on Thursday at the age of 81.

He passed away at his home in London after fighting cancer for more than a decade, UK media said, prompting tributes from many who fondly recalled their first experience of computing in the early 1980s.

He was still working on inventions last week “because that was what he loved doing”, his daughter Belinda Sinclair told the BBC.

“He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure, it was his passion,” she added.

Clive Sinclair’s groundbreaking products included the first portable electronic calculator in 1972.

The Sinclair ZX80, launched in 1980, brought home computing to the masses in Britain and beyond.

Other early home computers such as the Apple II cost far more, and Sinclair’s company was the first in the world to sell more than a million machines.

Follow-up models included the ZX Spectrum in 1982, which boasted superior power and a more user-friendly interface, turbo-charging the revolution in gaming and programming at home.

British movie director Edgar Wright, whose latest film “Last Night in Soho” premiered in Venice this month, paid tribute to Sinclair on Twitter.

“For someone whose first glimpses of a brave new world were the terrifying graphics of ‘3D Monster Maze’ on the ZX81, I’d like to salute tech pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair,” he said.

“He made 21st Century dreams feel possible. Will bash away on the rubber keys of a Spectrum in your honour. RIP.”

Tom Watson, former deputy leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, tweeted: “This man changed the course of my life.

“And arguably, the digital age for us in the UK started with the Sinclair ZX80, when thousands of kids learnt to code using 1k of RAM.

“For us, the Spectrum was like a Rolls Royce with 48k.”

However, not all of Sinclair’s inventions were a runaway success.

“If I had a computer, I’d start thinking I could change this, I could change that, and I don’t want to. My wife very kindly looks after that for me.”