Things change. It is one of the constants in life. Unlike the adage,
however, they do not necessarily stay the same. This is never more true
than in computing. If you can compare old laptops with newer versions,
you'll find a huge difference in looks and power.
Laptops started
a millennium ago. This is technically true. We are firmly in 2010 but
the first laptop concept started in 1968, firmly within the last
millennium(!), with Alan Kay, a computer programming pioneer. He had a
vision of a computer that was handheld, light, tablet-like with a screen
and a keyboard. He called it the Dynabook. This was the original
inspiration of the laptop and it influenced the design accordingly.
Vision
could not be produced immediately. There were technical hurdles that
had to be overcome. But even though the materials weren't there, there
were companies that still gave it their best shot.
It was IBM,
that large influential corporation that produced the first laptop. If
laptops weighed 50 lbs. There are lighter desktops today but remember,
mainframes were the most common computer at the time. Smaller machines
simply did not exist as proper computers. It was announced in 1975 and
it had more in common with today's all-in-one desktop than anything
else. Imagine it as a suitcase with a phone like screen and a typewriter
keyboard at one end.
After 6 years in 1981, there came a marked
improvement. The Osborne 1 was created. It weighed half as much as IBM's
offering. For many people it was the first true laptop. It even had a
keyboard that flipped down to reveal a 5-inch screen and floppy disks!
But
some argue that the first laptop was the Gavilan SC, which debuted in
1983. For one thing, it looks more like a laptop than the Osborne. It
weighed 14 lbs (yay!). It also came with Microsoft-DOS.
For some
time laptops copied the Gavilan design. Many companies produced
computers that didn't veer far from it. The first major change from that
design occurred in 1991. During that fateful year, Apple released the
Powerbook 100. It's greatest innovation lay in the keyboard. They pushed
it back, when it originally rested near the edge. The company laid a
palm rest and a trackball before the keypad instead. It became the
laptop design that everyone copied.
In the year 2000 when the end
of the world was prophesied, Microsoft provided a concept for tablet
computers. Basically, it was a laptop with a stylus. It didn't prove
popular in the market except for some niche businesses.
In 2005
when the end of the world was firmly behind, the One Laptop Per Child
(OLPC) initiative announced its goal to give laptops to needy children.
The laptop had to be cheap and mass produceable. They envisioned a tiny
laptop with a 7.5-inch screen. They basically created the netbook.
While
the netbooks made laptops smaller, lighter and cheaper, Apple created a
laptop that was lighter and more expensive in 2008. It was called the
Macbook Air. They began taking away ports and optical drives. Other
manufacturers began making premium ultrathins.
Today, the laptops
looks like it will be replaced the tablet - eventually. The laptop
still has much life in it and the tablet needs to be developed more. But
the tablet is lighter and more convenient. Its not the end of the
laptop but things certainly change.
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