Blog #4: The First Laptop (EOTO)

The First Laptop  👩🏽‍💻

As we all know the laptops that we have today haven’t always looked as thin and sleek as they do. The invention of the laptop all began with a device called the Osborne 1. The Osborne 1 is known as the first portable laptop and was created by Adam Osborne, who was also the founder of Osborne computer company and an author who published computer books and software. This invention weighed 24 pounds with a 5-inch screen and was priced at $1,795 which today would be priced at $5,110. Osborne created this device to use the best software during this time which was a CP/M running on a Z80 Microprocessor.   Not only was it running with the best software, but it was also running off of batteries which meant that it didn’t need to be plugged into anything and all you had to do was change the batteries.

It is also able to close and has a handle to carry it. Now that is what you call portable! Here is a video that I found that demonstrates how the Osborne 1 works. This was the first device that made it possible for businessmen to be able to carry their work with them while they travel. Although this was the first time people were able to carry their computers, it didn’t really get the popularity that Osborne hoped for. The failure of the Osborne 1 led to the creation of the Grid Compass 1101, which may look like the laptops we all know and love today. This laptop was released in 1983 and was featured with a design known as the “clamshell”, with a screen that could be folded against the keyboard when closing it (sounds familiar right!).

This new design of the laptop was 10 times easier to carry around, but it wasn’t very successful because of the price, which ran at about $10,000 for one laptop. Although it didn’t become very successful, it became the inspiration for other companies to create their own laptop. This has sparked competition from all different companies trying to create the best “clamshell” laptop but finding a way to improve the appearance and the quality of it every year. 

This has led to the creation of laptops that are super thin and light, have touch screens, and even laptops that can transform into a tablet. We now have the MacBook Pro by Apple, which is very thin and very high quality, Microsoft’s Windows computer which is super thin but also has a touchscreen, and also Microsoft’s Windows Surface Book 3 which is also thin, touch screen and can turn into a tablet by disconnecting the screen from the keyboard. It is so shocking to see how much the laptop has evolved over time, and who would have ever thought we would have touch screen laptops looking back at the Osborne 1 in 1981. Here is a video on the Evolution of Laptops from 1975-2020 and after watching it I am excited to see how much more the laptop will change in the next 20 years considering we have gotten this far already.