The PowerBook is a family of Macintosh laptop computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1991 to 2006. During its lifetime, the PowerBook went through several major revisions and redesigns, often being the first to incorporate features that would later become standard in competing laptops. The PowerBook line was targeted at the professional market. In 1999, the line was supplemented by the home and education-focused iBook family.
iBook is a line of laptop computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1999 to 2006. The line targeted entry-level, consumer and education markets, with lower specifications and prices than the PowerBook, Apple's higher-end line of laptop computers. It was the first mass consumer product to offer Wi-Fi network connectivity, which was then branded by Apple as AirPort.
A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook for short, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a clamshell form factor with a flat panel screen on the inside of the upper lid and an alphanumeric keyboard and pointing device on the inside of the lower lid, although 2-in-1 PCs with a detachable keyboard are often marketed as laptops or as having a "laptop mode". Most of the computer's internal hardware is fitted inside the lower lid enclosure under the keyboard, although many laptops have a built-in webcam at the top of the screen and some modern ones even feature a touch-screen display. In most cases, unlike tablet computers which run on mobile operating systems, laptops tend to run on desktop operating systems which have been traditionally associated with desktop computers.
SuperDrive is the product name for a floppy disk drive and later an optical disc drive made and marketed by Apple Inc. The name was initially used for what Apple called their high-density floppy disk drive, and later for the internal CD and DVD drive integrated with Apple computers. Though Apple no longer manufactures computers that feature built-in SuperDrives, the name is still used when referring to Apple's external CD and DVD drive accessory (pictured).
The Macintosh Portable is a laptop designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from September 1989 to October 1991. It is the first battery-powered Macintosh, which garnered significant excitement from critics, but sales to customers were quite low. It featured a fast, sharp, and expensive monochrome active matrix LCD screen in a hinged design that covered the keyboard when the machine was not in use. The Portable was one of the early consumer laptops to employ an active matrix panel—only the most expensive of the initial PowerBook line, the PowerBook 170, had such a panel. The machine was designed to deliver high performance, at the cost of increased price and weight. The Portable was discontinued in October 1991.
The PowerBook Duo is a line of subnotebooks manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1992 until 1997 as a more compact companion to the PowerBook line. Improving upon the PowerBook 100's portability, the Duo came in seven different models. They were the Duo 210, 230, 250, 270c, 280, 280c, and 2300c, with the 210 and 230 being the earliest, and the 2300c being the final incarnation before the entire line was dropped in early 1997.
The PowerBook G4 is a series of notebook computers manufactured, marketed, and sold by Apple Computer between 2001 and 2006 as part of its PowerBook line of notebooks. The PowerBook G4 runs on the RISC-based PowerPC G4 processor, designed by the AIM (Apple/IBM/Motorola) development alliance and initially produced by Motorola. It was built later by Freescale, after Motorola spun off its semiconductor business under that name in 2004. The PowerBook G4 has had two different designs: one with a titanium body with a translucent black keyboard and a 15-inch screen; and another in an aluminum body with an aluminum-colored keyboard, in 12-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch sizes.
The PowerBook G3 is a series of laptop Macintosh personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1997 to 2001. It was the first laptop to use the PowerPC G3 (PPC740/750) series of microprocessors, and was marketed as the fastest laptop in the world for its entire production run. The PowerBook G3 was succeeded by the PowerBook G4.
Outbound Systems, Inc., was an American computer company based in Boulder, Colorado. Founded by Warren Conner in 1989, the company offered Macintosh clone computer systems in various portable form factors between 1989 and 1991. It left the Mac conversion business in 1992 to build windows-based desktop computers before going bankrupt in 1993.
The PowerBook 500 series is a range of Apple Macintosh PowerBook portable computers first introduced by Apple Computer with the 540c model on May 16, 1994. It was the first to have stereo speakers, a trackpad, and Ethernet networking built-in.
The PowerBook 190 and its companion PowerBook 190cs are laptop computers manufactured by Apple Computer as part of their PowerBook brand, introduced to the market in August 1995. The two models differ only in their screen: the 190 had a 9.5" greyscale display, while the 190cs featured a 10.4" color display. Apple's target sales audience for this model was the college student in need of a no-frills portable computer.
The PowerBook 3400c is a laptop computer in the PowerBook line manufactured by Apple Computer from February to November 1997. It was briefly the fastest laptop in the world. Using the PowerPC 603e processor running at speeds of up to 240 MHz, this PowerBook was the first to feature a PCI architecture, EDO memory, and a 64-bit wide, 40 MHz internal bus. It was also the first PowerBook to feature a PC card slot capable of being used as a zoomed video port. Like all Apple laptops since the PowerBook 500 series, it featured a built-in trackpad as the pointing device.
Apple PowerCD is a CD player sold by Apple Computer in 1993 and discontinued several years later. It was a re-badged Philips-designed product which was sold in addition to Apple's speakers and also included a remote control. The PowerCD was capable of reading Kodak photo CDs, data CDs and audio CDs. It can connect to Macintosh personal computers through SCSI and also to stereo systems and televisions.
The PowerBook 1400 is a notebook computer that was designed and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1996 to 1998 as part of their PowerBook series of Macintosh computers. Introduced in October 1996 at a starting price of $2,499, it was the first new PowerBook after the controversial PowerBook 5300. After the introduction of the more powerful PowerBook 3400c in February 1997, the 1400 took on the role of Apple's entry level notebook and remained there until its discontinuation in May 1998. Its successor, the PowerBook G3 Series, would ultimately go on to replace and consolidate not only the 1400, but the 2400c and 3400c as well.
The PowerBook 2400c is a subnotebook in Apple Computer's PowerBook range of Macintosh computers, weighing 4.4 pounds (2.0 kg). Manufacturing was contracted to IBM Japan. In a return to the PowerBook 100 form factor, it was introduced in May 1997 as a late replacement for the PowerBook Duo 2300c, which had been the last of the subnotebook PowerBook Duo series. The 2400c was discontinued in March 1998, with no immediate replacement — the model that followed it was the much larger PowerBook G3 Series. However, in Japan a 2400c with a 240 MHz CPU was offered shortly after the original model's discontinuation, until the end of the year.
The PowerBook 100 is a portable subnotebook personal computer designed and manufactured by Sony for Apple Computer and introduced on October 21, 1991, at the COMDEX computer expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Priced at US$2,500 with external floppy drive, the PowerBook 100 was the low-end model of the first three simultaneously released PowerBooks. Its CPU and overall speed closely resembled those of its predecessor, the Macintosh Portable. It had a Motorola 68000 processor at 16 MHz, 2-8 megabytes (MB) of RAM, a 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome backlit liquid-crystal display (LCD) with 640 × 400 pixel resolution, and the System 7.0.1 operating system. It did not have a built-in floppy disk drive and was noted for its unique compact design that placed a trackball pointing device in front of the keyboard for ease of use.
The PowerBook 100 series is a line of laptop PCs produced by Apple Computer.
The history of laptops describes the efforts, begun in the 1970s, to build small, portable Personal Computers that combine the components, inputs, outputs and capabilities of a Desktop Computer in a small chassis.
The Psion MC series is a line of laptop computers made by Psion PLC and launched in 1989.
The LTE 5000 series was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1995 to 1997. The LTE 5000 series was Compaq's first laptop with Pentium processors from Intel. The line of computers were co-developed between Compaq and Inventec of Taiwan and were manufactured entirely by Inventec overseas. The LTE 5000 series marked the last generation in the LTE line, Compaq replacing it with the Armada line in 1997.
