A short excursus on the history of mobile devices

When looking at UMPCs we need firstly ask us the question, how did this whole development of notebooks begin? Well, it is quite difficult to say what the first laptop computer was. Most agree that it was in 1981, when Adam Osborne produced the Osborne 1. At that time, the word laptop might have sounded ridiculous, as it implies you should put the 11kg weighting device on your lap. This must have been quite heavy! Besides, there were others like Manny Fernandez, who designed a laptop for executives in 1983 and is by some considered as the first fully functional laptop computer. In 1985 Toshiba launched a laptop and gave it the name “Notebook”. Since then, we have two words for the same device: laptop or notebook. In 1989 NEC introduced, probably the first real laptop, weighting only around 2.5 kg. Only failing was that the battery shut down after 20 minutes! From that time on, improvements were made and laptops become both lighter, more powerful and fitted with a longer battery life. Already, in 1993, the first PDAs were released. Finally in 2006, the first UMPC devices were displayed during CeBIT time.