Evolving The Laptop To What It Is Today

Bill Gates may have envisioned all homes to have a PC

, but someone else got a better idea to make it portable as well. At that time, the computer geeks probably never had any clue that portable computers will one day rule the computing consumer landscape. If they did they wouldnt have manufactured those bulky portable PCs that on hindsight were the early precursors of the laptop.

The term laptop was a play of words to suggest that the computer can be operated right from your lap to distinguish it from regular PC that require a desktop. The term didnt get into the computer jargon until sometime in the early 90s. Before that, computer makers made incursions into the portable PC. Heres a snapshot of the laptop history before that time.

The First Portable Computer

It was in 1981 at about the same time that the IBM PC AT and compatibles where just starting to make history when the Osborne Computer Company churned out the Osborne 1 that could be closed and carried like a briefcase, a bulky one that looked more like a portable sewing machine case. It had a 5-inch monochrome display with 52 characters on a line and ran on floppy disks. It had an optional separate battery pack. You have to be a masochist to operate it from your lap. It was portable alright. But at 24 pounds, the more apt term is luggable. Only from desk to desk, as you wont last very far lugging them.

Gavilan Computer, The First Laptop?

The first computer that looked like the laptop of today might just be the Gavilan Mobile Computer of 1983. It has that familiar clamshell body where the screen folded up and down over its keyboard. It had a 9 pound body and could last 9 hours on a rechargeable nickel cadmium battery. Many pundits consider this as the father of the laptop, as its form can be considered the modern laptops precursor.

Between 1981 and 1989, portable or luggable PCs have come and gone, a nod to a very small specialized PV market segment that preferred something light that can support their mobility requirements with just a slight compromise in computing power. There were great specimens from IBM, Radio Shack, Zenith and Japanese electronic makers like NEC.

The truly light portables came from Radio Shack with their TRS models but were toned down computers with limited power and flexibility, acting more like advanced typewriters and gaming consoles. IBM never had any idea how a portable should look like as their efforts continue to use the size of PC AT CPUs cases with a diminutive 5 screen slapped on its face and covered by the keyboard. Again, luggable is the better category.

Compaq Became Famous For It

It was left to Compaq that made a name for itself with the first pioneering portable clamshell PC using VGA graphics screen in 1988. A year later, Zenith came out with one of its ill-fated entry into the computer business that took the Compaq form into the sleek world. Then, all the PC makers followed suit. In 1989, the world saw the first notebook computer also from Compaq with the LTE line. It was still bulky, typically 2-3-inch thick, but you now have the making of a mobile PC which in time took the slim form of laptops of today. IBM followed suite with its line of ThinkPads and as they say, the rest is history. GP

by: Ritchie Smythe

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