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The PowerBook was a line of Apple Mac laptop computers that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1991 to 2006. more...

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During its lifetime, the PowerBook went through several major revisions and redesigns, often being the first to incorporate features that would later become standard in competing laptops. The PowerBook line was targeted at the professional market, and received numerous awards, especially in the second half of its life, such as the 2001 Industrial Design Excellence Awards \"Gold\" status, and Engadget's 2005 \"Laptop of the Year\".

Prior to the PowerBook's introduction, Apple produced the Macintosh Portable. Third-party portables that ran Macintosh software were also available, such as the Outbound Laptop.

In 2006, the line was discontinued, its replacements being the Intel-based MacBook and MacBook Pro, the latter retaining much of the visual design of the last generation of PowerBook.

Early PowerBooks

In October 1991 Apple released the first three PowerBooks: the low-end PowerBook 100, the more powerful PowerBook 140, and the high end PowerBook 170. These machines caused a stir in the industry with their compact dark grey cases, use of a trackball, and the clever positioning of the keyboard which left room for palmrests. Portable PC computers at the time tended to have the keyboard forward towards the user, with empty space behind it, so this was a surprising innovation. The PowerBook 140 and 170 were original designs, while the PowerBook 100 had an interesting pedigree: Apple had sent the schematics of the Mac Portable to Sony, who miniaturised the components. Hence the PowerBook 100's design does not match those of the rest of the series. The PowerBook 100 did not sell well until Apple dropped the price substantially.

In 1992 Apple released a hybrid portable/desktop computer, the PowerBook Duo. This was a very thin and lightweight laptop with a minimum of features, which could be inserted into a docking station to provide the system with extra video memory, storage space, connectors, and could be connected to a monitor. The model did not sell as well as expected, although several companies have since adopted the design.

The first series of PowerBooks were hugely successful: capturing 40% of all laptop sales, a fact that Apple did not capitalize on. The original team left to work at Compaq, setting back updated versions for some time. When increasing processing power, Apple was hampered by the overheating problems of the 68040; this resulted in the 100-series PowerBook being stuck with the aging 68030 which could not compete with newer-generation Intel 80486-based PC laptops introduced in 1994. For several years, new PowerBook and PowerBook Duo computers were introduced which featured incremental improvements, including color screens, but by mid-decade, most other companies had copied the majority of the PowerBook's features, and Apple was unable to regain their lead.

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