The PowerBook's early years

This may come as a shock, but Apple's PowerBook hasn't always been a shining example of exemplary notebook engineering. In fact, before 1992 it was a 15 lb. behemoth that struck about as much of a chord as William Hung. Fortunately, a partnership with Sony (nope, that's not a typo) and some powerful market motivation gave birth to the awesome forces of Asahi, Tim LC and Tim, otherwise known as the PowerBook 100, PowerBook 140 and PowerBook 170.

Oddly enough, one of the most appealing features of these PowerBooks was the placement of the trackball, which was essentially in the position virtually all of today's notebooks use. Can you believe some manufacturers, such as Compaq, used to place a trackball on the back of the display in those days? Again, not a typo.

For more historical goodness, read the full story about the rise and eventual fall of the PowerBook's early years in an article at Low End Mac.

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Source: http://lowendmac.com/orchard/05/1123.html

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This may come as a shock, but Apple's PowerBook hasn't always been a shining example of exemplary notebook engineering. In fact, before...

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Dominic

I still have my lugable... ya I love lead acid batterys in a laptop.... dektop size 3.5 inch drives and a magnificent 5? inch display :-D got it at a garage sale for a dolalr when i took a powerbook 140 of there ands for 5 bux :-D

November 26 2005 at 1:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Terry

I still have my Powerbook 145B. It has OS 7 installed, the battery still holds a charge and the computer still works. It has a whopping 8 megs of RAM and an 80 meg hard drive. Every once in a while I will put it and my current Powerbook side by side on a table and marvel at the advancements that have been made.

November 25 2005 at 5:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Rob Knight

William Hung...sweet. Good one.

November 25 2005 at 4:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mark

Actually, the early Powerbooks WERE "shining examples of exemplary notebook engineering". As is pointed out, the forward-keyboard design, palm rest with and pointing device in the middle of the palm rest were all extremely innovative designs that became industry standards that last to this date. The 15lb clunker was NOT a Powerbook, but rather the Mac Portable (the "Luggable" as it was coined). Powerbooks have remained on the leading edge of tech design with a hiatus in the late 90s with the severely unimpressive (from a performance and design standpoint) 5300 and 3400 series. Download Mactracker for all the specs on the Luggable and every Apple device to date. MH

November 25 2005 at 4:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bruce

The track ball was in the lower right corner of the front of the screen. The buttons were on the back. I have one in my collection and it's actually quite comfortable to use.

November 25 2005 at 2:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply