History of Notebook Computers

The First Laptop is Designed in 1979 by William Moggridge, for Grid Systems Corporation, the Grid Compass was one fifth the weight of any model equivalent in performance and was used by NASA on the space shuttle program in the early 1980's.

The computer company Compaq, which gets it name from the word 'compact' introduced the first IBM Compatible computer in 1982.

Manny Fernandez had the idea for a well-designed laptop for executives who were starting to use computer. Fernandez, who started Gavilan Computer, promoted his machines as the first "laptop" computers in May 1983.

The first notebook to hit the market is generally believed to have been the Epson's HX-20. This was the world's first hand held computer and it was introduced in JULY 1982. It had only 16KB of RAM and weighted only 1.6 kg or roughly 3 and half pounds. It proved to be very popular - not only for personal use but also in factories where it could be used on the production line.

1983 Tandy, Epson and NEC all enter the notebook market with the Tandy's model 100 becoming the most popular. Priced at $499.

1984 Dell Computer is founded May 3, 1984 in Austin Texas.

1985 Gateway 2000 is founded in Sioux City, Iowa.

In October 1989, Compaq Computer released its first notebook PC, the Compaq LTE.

In March 1991, Microsoft released the Microsoft BallPoint Mouse that used both mouse and trackball technology in a pointing device designed for laptop computers.

In October 1991, Apple Computers released the Macintosh PowerBook 100, 140, and 170 - all notebook style laptops. (more on Powerbooks)

In October 1992, IBM released its ThinkPad 700 laptop computer.

In 1992, Intel and Microsoft release APM or the Advanced Power Management specification for laptop computers.

In 1993, the first PDAs or Personal Digital Assistants are released. PDAs are pen-based hand-held computers.

1993 Intel releases the Pentium Processor.

1993 The Internet starts experiencing massive growth. With or without Al Gore's Help!!

Today, the notebook or laptop computer is very popular.Some of the most highly rated notebooks and laptops being: HP Pavilion zd8000, Gateway M520X, Dell Inspiron 9200, Toshiba Satellite A65, IBM ThinkPad Series, Panasonic ToughBook and the Averatec 6200.

In 2005, faculty members from the MIT Media Lab including Nicholas Negroponte introduced the $100 laptop as part of the One Laptop Per Child project. The aim is to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. These machines will be rugged, Linux-based, and so energy efficient that hand-cranking alone will generate sufficient power for operation. Ad-hoc wireless mesh networking may be used to allow many machines Internet access from one connection. The pricing goal is to start at $100 and then steadily decrease.