Ten years ago this week, IBM debuted the ThinkPad notebook – and the company known for refrigerator-size mainframes ignited a major shift in laptop design and engineering.
Laptops in the late 1980s and early 1990s were hardly an acceptable alternative to desktop PCs. They only fit in a lap if the user matched Paul Bunyan's proportions. Screens were barely larger than a business envelope. Processors lagged several generations behind those of their desktop brethren.
But with the 1992 release of the ThinkPad 700 – which cost $4,350 – IBM introduced a number of ground-breaking features, such as a thinner, ergonomic design, a keyboard light and a large color screen. Up until then, laptop displays had all been monochrome.
It also introduced the TrackPoint pointing stick, a nub-like device shaped like a pencil eraser and originally developed by ALPS Electronics of Japan. At the time, the same pointer appeared in one other product, a Gateway notebook, but it was placed way over to the right of the keyboard.
IBM put the pointer smack in the middle.
"This was a real breakthrough, an integrated pointing device that actually improved the efficiency of the mouse because you didn't have to take your hand off the keyboard," said David Hill, director of design for IBM's personal computer division.
Noted industrial designer Richard Sapper came up with the ThinkPad's signature square, black case – the inspiration for which was a lacquered Japanese bento lunch box, said Hill.
In 1995, IBM put forth another new laptop design with the 701c, commonly called the Butterfly. Its keyboard split in half and folded in on itself when the laptop was closed, allowing for a full-sized keyboard on a machine with a 12-inch screen.
But once larger screens became available, IBM phased out the design.
"We could more closely map the screen size to the keyboard," Hill said. "People wanted the bigger screen, so we just married the larger screen with the keyboard size without having to compress it."
Beyond features, IBM also pushed the durability limits of laptops.
"When laptops came out, they had a reputation that they didn't last very long or fell apart. We spent an enormous amount of time on ThinkPad torture tests," said Hill.
IBM smacked the devices around to uncover their weak spots. One of the protective developments to come out of this was a shock absorber – included on the ThinkPad 700 – that protected the computer's internal moving parts so movement wouldn't cause the processor to shut down or reboot.
Bill Machrone, longtime PC Magazine editor and current editor-in-chief of ExtremeTech, said the ThinkPad "was a much needed exercise in credibility for laptops. IBM brought several things to the party. One was consumer research. The other side of the coin was IBM's phenomenal engineering skill. They brought a lot of firepower to bear on the problem."
IBM's reputation as technology leader also helped make the laptop more widely acceptable for business use, Machrone said.
"While there were other credible laptops before the ThinkPad, the ThinkPad made it safe for corporate America to buy them in quantity and trust the reliability."
IBM doesn't claim credit for all the advances in portable computing. But the company is happy to see that the laptop no longer plays second fiddle to the desktop.
"The playing field is much more equal now than it was 10 years ago, or even five years ago," said Hill. "The added functionality is tremendous, as is being able to work anywhere and always being connected."