Currently we associate the word portable with a device that we can carry from one place to another in a comfortable way, but this was not always the case, especially with the first portable computer, the Osborne 1, since weighed 11.1 kilograms and above had no battery, it needed to be plugged in all the time. There are desktops today that weigh less, right?
What was the Osborne 1 like?
Launched in 1981 and quickly, we could classify it as a normal computer but it included a small screen and could be folded into a briefcase for transport thanks to a handle. It didn’t have much else, since as we mentioned it didn’t even have a battery and it had to be connected to the mainsTherefore, its only function was to be able to move it from home without having to plug and unplug a thousand cables.
It also had two slots for floppy disks, something that seems very striking in the case of a “laptop”, right? Anyway, the company sold it to us very well, they said it was the first computer that could be carried under the seat of an airplane. And reason they did not lack the truth.
Its price at that time was $1,795. Something expensive today, imagine yourself in the 80s. It was not a product for all budgets, but more for large businessmen. Of course, the most powerful software on the market was included, as well as a package of the best programs of the moment.
It was by no means the best computer of that date, there were faster, better ones, with much larger screens and better quality and all for less. However, the marketing bet they made paid off and the Osborne 1 was one of the best-selling computers of those years. It came to sell 10,000 units per montheven having problems to supply the demand.
But all this that had gone well for them was spoiled with the same strategy that had worked for them: advertising. They announced a new, much better model, with a bigger screen, lighter, cheaper, etc. This made everyone who was going to buy it wait for the new one to come out, since his project was still only on paper. As a result, they lost millions that they were unable to recover, and were advanced by other companies without their realizing it.
Even so, the Osborne 1 managed to attract thousands of users who were then looking for a similar product, which accelerated the research and development of better laptops to the present day where many of them weigh less than 1 kilogram and have battery lifes of up to 12 hours. Who would have thought it in 1981 after seeing that first model.
