How Did The Mobile Office Function Before The Smartphone?

The modern office as we know it today has been largely shaped not just by the laptop but also the smartphone, with both business mobile solutions essential to the running of a lot of modern companies in the age of platform agnosticism and remote working.

A lot of the modern office was shaped not only by the iPhone, which changed almost everything when it came to the business world, but before this the BlackBerry, the Nokia 9000 

Communicator series and to a much lesser degree the IBM Simon.

These were all devices that aimed to create an office in one relatively small package, capable of serving as a computer, a personal organiser and a telephone.

However, before this consolidation, it was not as if there was no desire from business executives for an office on the move, to allow for projects to be continued whilst on the way to conferences, on holiday or managing a multinational empire.

It was just a bit bulkier than one might expect.

In A World Of High Technology

Portable computers that could be used on the move existed as early as 1981, with models such as the Osborne 1, Kaypro II, Compaq Portable and Commodore VIP-64, the latter creating a marketing campaign that illustrates in the most 1980s way possible the enduring desire for a portable office.

Of these four, the Osborne 1 was the first major success for a portable computer, benefitting from being released first, being just the right size and weight to count as hand luggage and coming packaged with a bundle of valuable software worth almost as much as the computer itself.

One contemporary review noted that the cheapest way at the time to set up a computer-based office was an Osbourne 1 and an Epson printer, and whilst it was extremely bulky and even by the admission of creator Adam Osbourne only adequate in its capabilities, it was enough to be a hit.

However, a bundle of software and being the first to market is rarely enough to stave off competitors for long, and soon enough it was losing ground to the Kaypro II.

Eventually, the market opened up to a wider range of computers, not all of which shared the same luggable design. 

Whilst the Commodore VIP-64 was not a success despite a jingle proclaiming that it was keeping up, the Compaq Portable eventually dominated the market and eventually shaped the computer industry in the image of the IBM PC-compatible.

Unfortunately, despite Osborne Computer Corporation’s innovations with the Osborne 1, it is perhaps most infamous for being the origin of the business term “Osborne effect”

Concerned about being squeezed out of the market, Adam Osborne revealed to a very small selection of the computing press a follow-up known as the Executive in March 1983.

The word got out about the new machine, dealers rapidly cancelled their orders and Osborne went out of business, declaring bankruptcy on 13th September 1983.

The reality might not be so clear-cut, as the success of Kaypro and later Compaq would have pushed Osborne out of the market regardless.

Regardless, these luggable machines, alongside early brick-like mobile phones and the first wave of personal digital organisers that began with the Psion Organiser I enabled a relatively rudimentary office to be set up anywhere with a plug.