
Whatever happened to the laptop computer? (1985) - vdfs
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/08/business/the-executive-computer.html?
======
egypturnash
For context, here is a laptop from the time:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_T1100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_T1100)

4.77 mhx 8088, 640x200 monochrome display. MS-DOS 2.11. 4 kilograms. $1899.

That's a bit more than $4k after adjusting for inflation.

Looks like a pretty expensive toy to me. I sure wouldn't take it fishing
either. What use would it even have?

~~~
joezydeco
Back when I worked on software validation of large clinical chemistry
analyzers, I had a number of these that I could move around the lab and hook
directly to the target machines. We had an array of Turbo-C programs that
would inject data into the machine over the serial port and read back results.

It was a lot easier to move these machines around that it was to move PC-ATs.
The battery also kept the machine running even if the power glitched (which we
would test as well)

~~~
philippnagel
For how long did the machines typically run on a single charge?

~~~
joezydeco
Don't quite remember, but it was probably around two hours. There was no hard
drive and no LCD backlight, so it pretty much sipped power.

------
trjordan
Let's apply the same rubric to smartphones and see if any of the complaints
make sense:

\- Price: Yep, but everything expensive can be solved by pricing. $600 over 2
years seems to be a sweet spot.

\- Portability: Maybe this is why there are more smartphones than laptops in
the world?

\- Software: The first iPhone was a big step up. App stores were another huge
inflection point. Gotta have that software!

\- Displays: Remember how fast displays improved once Retina broke the ice?
Definitely a differentiator for each new generation of phone (until a year or
two ago, where things seemed to have cooled off.)

\- Niche usage: They're right, there were a bunch of niches that took off and
encouraged markets to open up that otherwise wouldn't want it. Square comes to
mind; I don't think artists are particularly keen on tech for tech sake.

I find it fascinating that the problems were identified so clearly in 1985.
Much of the progress needed to let laptops and smartphones take off were
incremental, but at some point, quantitative changes became qualitative.

~~~
BorisMelnik
Forgot one point: battery life

The next phone manufacturer that will be able to make a smartphone / laptop
that can last more than 1 working day on a single charge will rule the world
of smart phones. Old cell phones could last 2, 3 even more days on a single
charge. Battery life is currently the main thing lacking.

~~~
megablast
There are already plenty of phones that last more than one day. Despite your
belief, people don't care about them.

~~~
jonesb6
Agreed, who doesn't bring there laptop/phone chargers anywhere where the
intend to have even medium usage (airport, car trip, study session , etc).

------
jhbadger
If you are too young to remember the era, the problem was that initial laptops
were very limited as compared to the desktops of the day, not just that people
couldn't see what good a laptop could be.

------
bendykstra
Another fun article from the same author from 1984, "VALUE OF [Desktop]
WINDOWING IS QUESTIONED."

[http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/25/science/value-of-
windowing...](http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/25/science/value-of-windowing-is-
questioned.html)

~~~
MBCook
In 1984 he was basically correct. Computers could barely handle it. On a 80x25
terminal they're not that useful, and when the Mac came out with it's tiny
screen it wouldn't have been that great.

Not that it mattered. The 128k of RAM was so little it couldn't run two real
applications at once, only one app and one 'desklet'(?) like the calculator.

It took a few years before it would have started to make sense.

------
Htsthbjig
The same applies to 3D printers today.

It is easy to mock this guy, specially the phrase of "because I can't imagine
it, it won't happen" but at the time it did not exist so you had to imagine
it, and most people can't imagine.

Today people are saying exactly the same thing about 3d printers. Too
expensive, lack of good software, and I can't image people doing great things
with this tool so it won't happen. The center of the Universe for everybody is
themselves.

We volunteer to teach children 3d printers now for a couple of years. Children
that learned to draw simple things two years ago, now design complex things in
freecad or Openscad with no effort whatsoever. For them things like sharing a
design is so natural because they leaned it as children.

When these children grow up they will collaborate making cars or planes or
fuel cells like we collaborate on Linux and is going to be huge.

------
Spooks
Well the author was correct about the average person not bringing it fishing.
I guess it's still a niche thing.

~~~
hotgoldminer
Even that has been upended, right? Smartphones, GPS, fish locating tools.

------
bobajeff
This, article more than anything shows the attitude the world had about
computers in general. Which is that computers are for serious business people.
Which was only true because prices were so high.

~~~
Houshalter
Well were they wrong? What did the average person do with a 1985 computer?
There was no internet and they were thousands of times less powerful.

~~~
sien
The average person could run a spreadsheet. They could use a word processor.
They could run a windowed operating system in color. They could learn to
program. They could play games. They could paint in color on a computer. They
could compose music on a computer.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga)

Having used a 1985 computer like that it's actually a bit sad that now that we
have computers and phones and tablets for $50 that are a thousand times more
powerful than an Amiga but are not a hundred times more useful.

~~~
Houshalter
I just realised that HN was the worst possible place to leave that comment. I
have no doubt there were many applications for computers in 1980s, and many
home users. It just seems far less useful to the _average_ person. How many
people actually use spreadsheets outside of a business context? Or write
music, or program, etc.

Games and word processing seem like they would be the best application. But
there were specialized consoles and word processing machines at the time that
were cheaper and better for those tasks.

~~~
coldtea
> _Games and word processing seem like they would be the best application. But
> there were specialized consoles and word processing machines at the time
> that were cheaper and better for those tasks._

No, there weren't. Compared to Amiga and Atari, there were no competitive home
game consoles around (until around 1989 or so at least).

And of course "word processing machines" were not better in any way.
Professional writers (writers, journalists, people writing scientific papers,
scriptwriters, etc) were buying PCs for word processing, not any dedicated
"word processing machines" (which were just electric typewriters with an LCD
and some crude software).

------
lloyddobbler
An interesting parallel is to look at the advent of the tablet. The Tablet PC
was launched in 2001, whereas the Apple iPad was released in April, 2010.

By 2003, it was easy to look at Microsoft's Tablet PC and describe it as an
"abject failure" \- similar to the way this article describes laptops. The
reasoning was slightly different but quite similar - both the original laptops
and the original Tablet PC were clunky and unsuited to the user's lifestyle.

TL;DR - User-centered design is a key to building successful products.

More context: [http://www.computerworld.com/article/2471642/mobile-
apps/mic...](http://www.computerworld.com/article/2471642/mobile-
apps/microsoft-released-its-first-tablet-10-years-ago--so-why-did-apple-win-
with-the-ipad-.html)

------
Roodgorf
> It would be much simpler to take home a few floppy disks tucked into an
> attache case.

~~~
JadeNB
Perhaps a less punchy version of Tanenbaum's famous "Never underestimate the
bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway"
([https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Tanenbaum](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Tanenbaum)).

------
beamatronic
This article mentions the Gridcase which I thought was an amazing rugged-
looking machine. Then I saw this

"GRiD Defence Systems produced the laptop computers used in the 'Aliens' film
in 1986. The scenes were cut from the theatrical release but subsequently
added to the DVD release." [1]

[1] [http://www.old-
computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1054&st=1](http://www.old-
computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1054&st=1)

------
cornholio
Let's not forget those pesky kids with smartphones, running all over my lawn.
What's the deal with those ? I mean really, who would, this day and age, still
waste the best part of their life raising these snotty monkeys that have no
respect ? Having kids was a fad and it's about time everybody realize it.

------
BorisMelnik
Fun article, I had one of those machines big and bulky. Probably weighed in
closer to about 20 pounds at the time.

"Tandy, which started it all, are still producing their laptops, albeit with
the almost unreadable liquid crystal display, or L.C.D"

I remember the days when CRT ruled the world and LCD was a trneding fad.

~~~
ashmud
I remember using a laptop with a color LCD around 1992. It truly was almost
unreadable, like trying to read something written with a morass of fallen
leaves.

~~~
MBCook
Man, when active matrix came out and started replacing the old passive matrix
it was night and day. Suddenly things weren't horrifically blurry anymore.

