Laptops: features, uses, and market overview

Laptops

Technology is the in-thing in the current world. All sectors and institutions that exist rely on technology and technological advances. Since the invention and incorporation of computers by the for-father of the computer era, several progressive steps have been achieved towards enhancing the quality of these computers. The initial and founding machines are renowned worldwide for their extremely large sizes. The first computers being as large as to occupy more than a standard room space. Continued improvements and studies into more efficient and effective technology re-sized these magnanimously large machines into the current small sized desktops and stand-alone (Howard, 2009).

The technological progression did not, however, stop there. The advent of the technological era in the early 1960s saw the designing of the first, smallest and more portable machines that later came to be called laptops (Chambers, 2008). The name laptop originated from the fact that these devices are mostly placed on the laps of the user due to their ease of portability. This marked the best of all technological advancement and achievement that has seen the technology be incorporated into extremely small devices, such as the so called palmtops, hand held smart phones and other devices.

Laptops are also referred as notebooks. They are easily portable computers that consist of the screen, keyboard and a track pad. They have an inbuilt rechargeable battery and an adapter for charging. The first of the laptop devices never looked anything close to the current devices that are as small as a book size and easily foldable. The advent of laptops began with one individual called Alan Kay. This invention was a simple trial that was supposed to be a toy for the children to use while playing. This was back in 1968 and was dubbed the Dynabook. This is the basis of the laptop development. However, the development failed to take root as there was a sizeable gap of technological advancement. The technology available and that developed in the early 1970s was simply incompatible. Moreover, lack of motivation and commercial incentives for developers to provide such devices contributed to the slow development of systems. Therefore, the scientists and other stakeholders in the field had to sit and work on the design of the Dynabook to improve the design.

There are several developments that took place between the 1978 and 1983 period. These developments include the Gavilan computer developed by Manny Fernandez, the grid compass developed by William Moggridge, a Briton scientist, Osborne 1 developed by Adam Osborne and the Epson HX-20 released in 1981 (Chambers, 2008). Although several historians have considered the Gavilan as the first developed workable laptop, there have not been any agreements to that effect. All these developments claim to be the first working portable computer. Hence, the rise of the portable computers has no definite starting point and neither do they have a sole disclaimer to be credited as the frontier of the development of the laptops.

However, the current laptop traces its roots to the Osborne 1. This device was developed in 1981 as the most easily portable device of the time. This computer, however, had a serious deficiency. This is the fact that it did not have batteries. This means that it had to run direct power, hence if the place the person was did not have power, the device was useless. However, this was the opening for the purchase of the easily portable devices and the springboard for development of better devices. The Grid Compass, born in 1982, was the first foldable flap laptop, and it had a battery. However, it was frightfully expensive, therefore, becoming unaffordable for most consumers. The invention of the Compaq portable and Epson HX-20 in 1983 made the laptop technology become commercialized. Both of these systems had incorporated the IBM and MS-DOS operating system software that were being used by the desktops. The Epson HX-20 was the first laptop that ran on rechargeable battery.

Later in the late 1986 and early 1987, Toshiba and IBM produced laptops that were IBM compatible. This was the success factor for these and more laptops as most laptops that did not have IBM software collapsed from the market (Howard, 2009). The development became profound with the development of Macintosh Portable, released by Apple Computers in 1989. This is what later developed into the current PowerBook that is in use today. Other devices released in the same period include Zenith MinisPor, Compaq LTE, Macintosh PowerBook 100, 140 and 170 notebook laptops. From the 1990s and thereafter, there have been several developments of the laptop designs and incorporation of advanced software.

The technology incorporated in the manufacture of the laptops is quite complicated. This is due to their small size and light weight requirements; hence, there is a lot of integration applied in the system. The motherboard consists of the processor, the audio and video chips integrated within the system. The audio chips have the speaker components and added software that enhance the sound effect in the computer (ParCo & Chapman, 2010). The video chips are not universal. These depend on the manufacturer and the grade of the laptop. Laptops with low video capabilities usually attract lower prices as compared to those with higher video effects.

The processor is designed to fit the needs and specifications of the design of the laptop. This processor is what runs the machine and hence determines the speed of the processing activity. The processor speed cannot be upgraded and hence, if the person buys a slow processor computer it remains that way. Therefore, slower processor computers do not attract high prices. The current Intel core i7 processors are the fastest with a 64- Bit memory (Bryant, 2012). The random Access Memory (RAM) is the part of the laptops that run the machine. Most laptops have a removable random access memory, and it is easily upgradable. The laptops use SODIMM (Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module). This RAM is entirely different from the desktop RAM and is consequently expensive and noticeably smaller. Furthermore, a buyer can specify the RAM specifications to the manufacturer or the vendor before purchasing the laptop and can improve the RAM. The different available RAM types for the laptops include the 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB 4 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB among others.