The first laptop was made in 1982 by GRID Systems Corp. It cost ten thousand dollars.

16 Jan

You’ve got to be a pretty big nerd to shell out 10G for a computer that, honestly,..didn’t do that much. $10,000 in 1982 would have gotten you a night with Leslie Easterbrook from Police Academy,..maybe even a full weekend! It’s for that reason, it was mainly used by NASA and the military special forces; who else could afford? The military were so interested because paratroopers could use it in combat.

The GRID compass 1101 was designed in 1979 by British born (of course) Bill Moggridge. Though there were technically other portable computers available, this was the first to use the clam-shell design which was later marketed as a ‘laptop’ in adverts for the Gavilan SC in ‘83.

Bill’s had a pretty good run too. He wrote ‘Designing Interactions‘, which ‘Business Week‘ named in the top 10 innovation and design books of 2006. He received a lifetime achievement award at the National Design Awards at the Whitehouse in 2009. On top of that he will be starting as the ‘Director of The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Museum’ in March.