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Classic Macs in the Intel Age

The Macintosh Portable Started a Notebook Revolution

- 2008.07.03 - Tip Jar

Popularity: LEMLEMLEMLEM

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Some modern things we just take for granted, like a stove, an oven, or a TV.

We sometimes also take laptop computers for granted. Nowadays you can buy them dirt cheap at your local Best Buy or Walmart.

But a lot of times we forget what started it all: It was Apple and the Macintosh Portable. Sure, there were laptops before the Mac Portable, but they were ugly, slow, and not user-friendly.

The Macintosh Portable

Apple decided to get into the portable market and save notebook users from certain death caused by text-based MS-DOS. On September 20, 1989, the Macintosh Portable was unveiled at a suggested retail price of US$6,500. It wasn't a beauty queen at 16 lb., but it was a Mac (i.e., user-friendly).

And it was fast.

It had a whopping 16 MHz 68000 CPU, making it twice as fast as the Macintosh SE, and it matched the Mac IIcx on some benchmarks! The Portable shipped with 1 MB of RAM (expandable to 9 MB) and an optional 20 MB hard drive.

Just imagine that back in 1989, when Windows 2.1 was considered state of the art.

Compaq LTE 386The main competitor was the nearly 7 lb. Compaq LTE family of notebooks, running various editions of MS-DOS on its CGA display and shipping with a 500-page book that told you how to change directories, delete a file, open the word processor - and how you must let the RAM check on POST pass without canceling "or your motherboard and/or Random Access Memory card may be permanently damaged and you will have to contact Compaq, Inc. blah, blah".

How easy is that for someone who has never used a computer before?

The Macintosh Portable was as user-friendly as any Mac, and you could take it with you.

As the title of this article suggests, this 16-pound baby started a revolution. Two years later, on October 21, 1991, the first PowerBooks were unveiled. These babies were slim. They were nothing like the Compaq LTE.

In 2001, the Titanium PowerBook G4 was introduced, setting a whole new standard for portable computing. It had a blazing-fast 400 MHz or 500 MHz PowerPC G4 processor and was a hell of a lot faster than any Wintel notebook.

In 2003, the iBook G4s were introduced. Just like the TiBook before them, these 'Books set a whole new standard, this time in consumer notebooks.

And now, in 2008, the 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro has been introduced.

Mac Portable and PowerBook 100This was all thanks to the Macintosh Portable. The PowerBook brand spun off from the Portable. The PowerBook 100 is basically a Portable in miniature - Apple hired Sony to make the components small enough to fit in a regular notebook case. (If you don't believe me, install System 6.08L on your PB 100: It will be identified as a Macintosh Portable.)

In 1999, the iBook brand spun off from PowerBook as a line of affordable consumer notebooks. The MacBook brand replaced the iBook when Apple moved to Intel processors (it is also considered the replacement of the 12" PowerBook). And finally, the MacBook Pro brand replaced the PowerBook brand as Apple's top-of-the-line notebooks.

What if Apple had never created the Portable? Compaq's notebooks would still be 1980s white, Acer's notebooks would still be stuck on that black and silver color scheme, and Dell probably wouldn't exist. And notebooks would never have become standard for many people. The OLPC project might never have existed if Apple hadn't started this revolution.

On Thursday, I will pick up a huge load of old Macs, including some Power Computing models, LCs, and a Macintosh Portable. Those Macs will probably become columns here - so stay tuned. LEM

If you find Carl's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

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