Laptops: A Buyer’s Guide
Today’s modern office no longer resembles the physical offices we so often think of when we picture a busy executive at work. The briefcase, the desk and often the personnel associated with a busy office space have all been unequivocally replaced by laptops. Worldwide, the laptop has become the most important item a businessperson uses. E-mail, Web applications and data storage on today’s laptops make it possible for any businessperson to take their office with them wherever they go.
With the advent of home computer systems being marketed to many, the late 1970s saw the emergence of smaller designs in computer hardware. Laptops, themselves, were a byproduct of the push for smaller more portable computers. The technology, though, wasn’t quite what it is today and as a result many of the older laptops were nothing more than a bulky, heavyweight, portable desktop computer. CRT displays, large circuit boards and weighty, short-life battery packs were the standard in almost all cases.
The date of the invention of what many would consider the first laptop is up for debate in most technology circles. In 1979 William Moggridge designed a portable computer for Grid Systems Corporation called the Grid Compass. NASA used this early fold-screen predecessor to modern laptops during the space shuttle program’s early years. It weighed one-fifth of what comparative models weighed and used 340 Kilobytes of bubble memory.
An argument for the first laptop could be made for the Gavilan portable computer. Laptops, of course, are built to fit on the lap of the person using it and the Manny Fernandez’s Gavilan computer did just that. This computer was specifically offered to executives in 1983 as an alternative to the bulkier, non-portable systems that most were using in their offices at that time.
One portable computer model, invented in 1981, contends for the role of first laptop. The Osborne 1, a 24-pound computer featuring a five-inch screen, two 5.25-inch floppy drives and a modem port, sold for $1795. While the Osborne 1 looks more like a medium-sized airline carry-on bag, it does qualify as a laptop due to the fact that it is portable and features a fold-in keyboard.
Most laptops today feature weights between three and ten pounds and have LCDs that produce millions of bright colors. Prices are incredibly low which makes them available to the masses and the built-in wireless capabilities of most make them Internet-ready. Speedy processors and large amounts of RAM make modern laptops even more powerful than desktops from three years ago.
Laptops of today are smaller, lighter and more colorful than their early predecessors, yet all of the models available today owe their advances in technology to their early ancestors. These heavy, sometimes inelegant, black and white behemoths of yesteryear did fit within the fledgling category of laptop computer despite their size and weight. If not for these early portables, the computers we know as laptops today would not exist. Because of this, anyone who uses a laptop computer should be aware of what has gone into the making of these pieces of equipment that we can no longer seem to do without.
Filed under: Computers & Technology