The new portable computers are handy chips off the old block Last summer, when Adam Osborne, former computer columnist turned
entrepreneur, put his Osborne 1 computer on the market, small had never
seemed so beautiful. Despite its graceless design—a cross between a
World War II field radio and a shrunken instrument panel of a DC-3—the
24-lb. machine combined most of the features of a fully loaded Apple or
Radio Shack computer. Better yet, it was completely portable. Sales
immediately took off, and some 30,000 units have been sold to date.
Osborne carry-along machines are already being used in courtrooms
, in
the wilds of Kenya and in war-torn
Afghanistan . Where no electric socket exists, the machines operate on
portable battery packs. Now more and more companies are jockeying for a slice of Osborne's
success. Last week, at the mammoth National Computer Conference in
Houston, at least a dozen U.S. and foreign manufacturers were hawking
portable computers that fit on the decks of pleasure boats, under
airline seats, into attach cases—even in the palm of the hand. Four
of the new machines were Osborne imitations featuring built-in video,
detachable typewriterlike keyboards and luggage-type carrying handles.
While several models improved on the Osborne's eye-straining 5-in.
screen, only one—manufactured by Non-Linear Systems Inc. in Solana
Beach, Calif., and sold by Kay Computers—matched its price, $1,795.
Osborne still retains the distinction of having produced the Volkswagen
of computers. At the pricier end of the market, Grid Systems of Mountain View, Calif.,
offers the Mercedes-Benz version. It has a thin, flat screen, folds
into a sleek 9-lb. magnesium package and slips easily into the
bottom half of a briefcase. The Compass Computer, as it is called,
packs considerable storage capacity—enough to handle the wordage of a
long novel. “It's a truly stunning engineering achievement,” says one
industry analyst. Equally stunning, however, is the price tag: $8,150. For now, the cheapest hand-held machines, like Radio Shack's new TRS-80
PC2 , are likely to be the most popular, despite drawbacks.
Their tiny, one-line display screens are better for solving engineering
problems or showing long strings of numbers than for serious writing or
business programming, and their calculator-type keyboards are much
harder to master than those of larger desktop computers. But they
remind some users of the proverbial dog walking on its hind legs: what
is surprising is not how well they work, but that they work at all. One
U.S. insurance company is considering buying 25,000 of Matsushita's
$380 HHC model to let its salesmen calculate premiums right before
potential customers' eyes.
