Macintosh Portable

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Macintosh Portable Gestalt ID: {{{Gestalt}}}
Apple code name	Esprit, Laguna, Malibu
Date released	September 1989
Date discontinued	October 1991
Processor and speed	Motorola 68000 at 16 MHz
System software	System 6.0.4 - Mac OS 7.5.5
Price at release	USD 6,500

The Macintosh Portable was Apple's first portable Macintosh.

Contents 1 Basic Introduction 2 Equipment 3 Memory, hard drive space 4 Special Notes 5 Reaction 6 Viewpoints 7 Miscellaneous 8 Sources and References

[edit] Basic Introduction

The Macintosh Portable was Apple's first attempt at making a portable Mac. Released in 1989, it was received with excitement from most critics but with very poor sales to consumers.

[edit] Equipment

Seemingly no expense was spared in the construction of the machine. It featured a black and white active-matrix LCD screen in a hinged cover that covered the keyboard when the machine was not in use. The mouse function was handled by a built-in trackball on the right hand side of the keyboard. Its memory was expensive SRAM in an effort to maximize battery life.

The machine was architecturally similar to a fast Macintosh SE, using a low power version of the 68HC000 running at 16 MHz. Weighing in at 16 pounds, due in large part to the sealed lead-acid batteries used, the machine was widely considered more of a "luggable" than a portable, and compared to the PowerBook 100 series introduced a few years later, lacked the ergonomic layout that set the trend for all future laptops. On the plus side, it had a full travel keyboard, and battery life was up to 10 hours. The Mac Portable had a standard 1.44 MB floppy disk drive, an optional internal hard disk (a low-power 3.5" drive from Connor was used), and also offered the first optional internal modem in a Macintosh.

In February 1991, Apple added a backlit screen, changed the SRAM memory to pseudo-SRAM, and lowered the price, but discontinued the model in October of the same year.

[edit] Memory, hard drive space

RAM: 1 MB, expandable to 9 MB, 8MB backlit version

[edit] Special Notes

[edit] Reaction

Despite the machine's disappointing sales, it was a brave attempt at making a workable portable computer, at a time when it wasn't really obvious what form such a machine should take. It was also limited by the available battery technology of the day. The first truly modern portable computer was the PowerBook, but the Mac Portable was a significant step on the way, even if only to show what form such a machine shouldn't have. The Portable did not disappear completely with the release of the PowerBooks, however: the PowerBook 100 is in fact a Mac Portable compressed into a small enclosure. Apple sent the Portable plans to Sony, who miniaturised the components and manufactured the PowerBook 100 for Apple.

[edit] Viewpoints

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Sources and References

• Wikipedia: Macintosh Portable
  

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