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The First Laptop - The Osborne 1
The Osborne 1 was truly massive for a laptop, especially compared to more recent laptops, such as the MacBook Air. It weighed just under 25 lbs and had a price tag of $1795. It only ran for 2 years before being succeeded by the Osborne Executive and other laptops, which were a lot better performance-wise and were much smaller. -
The IBM Simon Personal Communicator
The Simon Personal Communicator was announced in 1992 and released in 1994. Simon's specs aren't impressive by today's standards, with a minuscule 1 MB of memory and a one hour battery life. Only 50,000 units were produced and starting prices were $899 with a contract and $1099 without one. -
The Apple Newton
Apple's Newton was one of the first personal digital assistants (PDAs) and was used the most in the medical field. The Apple Newton debuted with a starting price of $699. The Newton did have a handwriting recognition feature, although it had problems that lead to its downfall along with the large price. Later the PalmPilot had much more success. -
The First Flip Phone
The StarTAC by Motorola was the first ever flip phone. It originally cost $1,995, which is expensive for a phone, even by today's standards. It was one of the first to have a lithium ion battery, and could run on swappable batteries. It was also the first phone to feature a vibrate function. -
The Rocketbook
The Rocketbook was the very first e-reader available. The product was pitched to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, all the way back in 1997 before being bought by Barnes & Noble. The e-reader required a computer to upload books and could only store ten books, which means you would frequently have to change what books you had loaded. -
The PalmPilot
The PalmPilot was developed by Palm PDA and sold for pretty cheap $129. The PalmPilot only had a 512 KB memory and ran on two AAA batteries. The PalmPilot wasn't a touchscreen, instead requiring the use of a stylus to input information. -
The First Blackberry
The first device released by Research in Motion (RIM)/Blackberry was the 850 Wireless Handheld. The 850 had 2 MB of memory and was powered by a single AA battery. The 850 had a 32-bit processor, which pales in comparison to the iPhone XR's 64-bit processor, which is over 4 billion times as powerful. -
The First Color Screen
The first smartphone with a colored screen was the Blackberry 7210. By now smartphones had 16 MB of storage, although some had as much as 32 MB. The 7210 had up to 5 hours of call time, and the 7210 cost $449. The 7210 was carried exclusivelyby AT&T. -
The First iPhone
The original iPhone had up to 16 GB of memory and 128 MB of RAM, which pales to today's iPhone XS Max's 512 GB of memory and 4 GB of RAM. The original had a small 3.5" screen, which makes the XS Max's 6.5" display huge. It sold for $499, although they can sell for thousands today as a collector's item. -
The MacBook Air
In 2008, Steve Jobs shocked the world by pulling a laptop out of a manila envelope. The new laptop, named the MacBook Air, revolutionized how thin a laptop could be. The thickest part of the Air was still thinner than the thinnest part of one of the thinnest laptops from Sony. The MacBook Air had 64 GB of storage and 2 GB of RAM and originally cost $1,799. -
The First iPad
The original Apple iPad debuted in 2010 with a 9.7" screen, which is the same as modern iPads (excluding iPad Pros). It originally sold for as little as $499, although a 64 GB version sold for $699. The iPad had both a WiFi version and a WiFi + Cellular version that ran on the 3G network. -
The Apple Watch
Apple Watches bring many features from your phone into a wearable watch. The original Apple Watch cost $349 and started with 8 GB of storage. The Apple Watch allowed users to control many things from their phone, including music, notifications, fitness, and messages. The only drawback is it has to be paired to an iPhone. -
Modern Smartphones
Smartphones have come a long way in the last couple of decades. Now smartphones are thinner, faster, and more powerful than ever before. Modern smartphones have large touch-screen displays, super fast processors, large amounts of storage, and better batteries. Smartphones can have many applications that let you do almost anything you would want to. -
Modern Laptops
Laptops have been getting more and more powerful over the last few decades. With several TBs of storage and larger batteries, laptops can range from as little as a few hundred dollars to as much as a few thousand. Some laptops even have touch-screens and 4K displays, and can even double as a tablet. -
Modern Tablets
Tablets now come in many shapes in sizes, including the massive 12.9" iPad Pro and the smaller 7.9" iPad Mini. Tablets are becoming more and more capable and can even double as computers, with the right accessories. Tablets can be used for almost anything and have the advantages of being lightweight, easily portable, and less expensive.
