Osborne Laptops & Desktops Driver

• Osborne Laptops Black Friday
• Osborne Laptops & Desktops Drivers

Adam Osborne founded Osborne Computer and formed the Osborne 1 in 1981. The Osborne 1 had a five-inch screen, incorporating a modem port, two 5 1/4 floppy drives, and big collection of bundled software applications. An aftermarket battery pack was available. The computer company was a failure and did not last for very long. The first laptop computer available to the public was the Osborne 1. The Osborne Computer Corporation released this model in 1981. It cost $1795 at the time of release. The screen was five inches long and the keyboard was in the lid of the computer.

The Osborne 1 was the first widely accepted portable computer that included a monitor, disk drives and all components. However, it did not include a battery and required plugging in to a mains socket. A battery pack later became available which offered one hour of usage. The Osborne 1 was introduced in 1981 at the West Coast Computer Faire.

The portable computer was based on the Z80A CPU which ran at 4MHz, had 64K RAM and 4K ROM, a 5-inch display screen, two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives and a detachable, full-sized keyboard. It also features IEEE and RS-232C interfaces. The Osborne weighed 24 pounds (10kg) and ran the CP/M operating system. It sold for $1,795 or £1250+VAT, which included Micropro's Wordstar software.

The Osborne 1 was very popular. In 1982, over 125,000 Osborne computers were sold and in 1983 Osborne announced that it would produce an IBM compatible portable computer, to be called the 'Vixen.' However, Compaq Computers beat Osborne to the market with their own IBM compatible machine. Osborne 1 sales dropped off as people waited for the 'Vixen' and Osborne Computers went into bankruptcy.

The Osborne effect is a business term of customers stopping buying the current product as a drawback of a company announcing a future product prematurely. Coined after the Vixen debacle, the sales of the Osborne 1 nose dived after the announcement of the new machine, which was no where near the end of its development.

Manufacturer: Osborne
Date: 1981

Osborne1Manuals:

MagazinesRELATEDtoOsborne1inourLibrary

OtherSystemsRelatedToOsborne1:

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH504. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

Summary

The Osborne 1 is the first mass-produced portable computer--a suitcase-sized 'luggable' system weighing 23.5 pounds. It was one of the first bundled systems, with an inclusive package of hardware and software including word processing, spreadsheet, and BASIC programs. Despite initial success, when Osborne declared bankruptcy in 1983, it became the prototype victim of sudden, devastating, technological crashes in high-tech economies.

The Osborne 1 is the first mass-produced portable computer--a suitcase-sized 'luggable' system weighing 23.5 pounds. It was one of the first bundled systems, with an inclusive package of hardware and software including word processing, spreadsheet, and BASIC programs. Despite initial success, when Osborne declared bankruptcy in 1983, it became the prototype victim of sudden, devastating, technological crashes in high-tech economies.

Date Made

1981-1982

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

89.356.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Glass (Material)
Copper alloy
Plastic
Iron alloy

Dimensions

Osborne Laptops Black Friday

Height: 8.75 in

Width: 14.75 in

Length: 20 in

Osborne Laptops & Desktops Drivers