{{Short description|Obsolete size class of laptops}} {{For|the broader class of portable computer|Laptop}} [[File:NEC UltraLite.JPG|thumb|The NEC UltraLite defined the modern notebook on its release in 1988.]] A '''notebook computer''' or '''notebook''' is, historically, a laptop whose length and width approximate that of letter paper ({{convert|8.5|by|11|in|mm|disp=or}}).{{efn|name=iso|In countries observing ISO 216, A4-sized paper ({{convert|210|by|297|mm|sigfig=3|disp=or}}) was used as the benchmark for the dimensions of notebooks.<ref>{{cite book | last=Hart | first=Norman | author2=John Stapleton | date=2012 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q5ArBgAAQBAJ | title=The CIM Marketing Dictionary | publisher=Taylor & Francis | page=205 | isbn=9781136008344 | via=Google Books}}</ref>}}
The term ''notebook'' was coined to describe slab-like portable computers that had a letter-paper footprint, such as Epson's HX-20 and Tandy's TRS-80 Model 100 of the early 1980s. The popularity of this form factor waned in the middle of the decade, as larger, clamshell-style laptops offered far more capability. In 1988, NEC's UltraLite defined a new category of notebook: it achieved IBM PC compatibility, making it technically as versatile as the largest laptops, while occupying a letter-paper footprint in a clamshell case. A handful of computer manufacturers followed suit with their own notebooks, including Compaq, whose successful LTE achieved full feature parity with laptops and spurred many others to produce their own notebooks. By 1991, the notebook industry was in full swing.
Notebooks and laptops occupied distinct market segments into the mid-1990s, but customer preference for larger screens led to notebooks converging with laptops in the late 1990s. Since the early 2000s, the terms ''laptop'' and ''notebook'' are used interchangeably, irrespective of physical dimensions, with ''laptop'' being the more common term in English-speaking territories.
==Etymology== [[File:Epson-hx-20.jpg|thumb|The Epson HX-20 from 1982 was the first portable computer to be called a "notebook".]] The terms ''laptop'' and ''notebook'' both trace their origins to the early 1980s, coined to describe portable computers in a size class smaller than the contemporary mainstream units (so-called "luggables") but larger than pocket computers.<ref>{{cite news | last=Reid | first=T. R. | date=October 10, 1988 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1988/10/10/the-latest-wave-in-personal-computers-is-small-but-fast/1f947411-c060-43e2-aa57-9ee496eaca9b/ | title=The Latest Wave in Personal Computers Is Small but Fast | newspaper=The Washington Post | page=F28 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20240505050802/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1988/10/10/the-latest-wave-in-personal-computers-is-small-but-fast/1f947411-c060-43e2-aa57-9ee496eaca9b/ | archivedate=May 5, 2024}}</ref><ref name=byte>{{cite journal | last=Williams | first=Gregg | date=April 1982 | url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1982-04/page/n105/ | title=The First ''Byte''-Sized Computer | journal=Byte | publisher=McGraw-Hill | volume=7 | issue=4 | pages=104–105 | via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> The etymologist William Safire traced the origin of ''laptop'' to some time before 1984;<ref name=safire>{{cite book | last=Safire | first=William | date=2011 | orig-date=1993 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WYV0aLwMd6UC | title=Quoth the Maven: More on Language from William Safire | publisher=Random House Publishing Group | page=352 | isbn=9780307799746 | via=Google Books}}</ref> the earliest attestation of ''laptop'' found by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' dates to 1983.<ref>{{cite web | date=n.d. | url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/laptop_n | title=laptop, n. & adj. | work=Oxford English Dictionary | publisher=Oxford University Press | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240505044414/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/laptop_n?tl=true | archivedate=May 5, 2024}}</ref> The word is modeled after the term ''desktop'', as in ''desktop computer''.<ref name=safire /> ''Notebook'', meanwhile, emerged earlier in 1982<ref>{{cite web | date=n.d. | url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/notebook-computer_n | title=notebook computer, n. | work=Oxford English Dictionary | publisher=Oxford University Press | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240505183728/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/notebook-computer_n?tl=true | archivedate=May 5, 2024}}</ref> to describe Epson's HX-20 portable, whose dimensions roughly correspond to a letter-sized pad of paper.<ref name=byte /><ref>{{cite journal | last=Needle | first=David | date=December 13, 1982 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 | title=Crowds converge on NE Computer Show | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=4 | issue=49 | pages=1, 9–11 | via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|9}}<ref>{{cite journal | last=Needle | first=David | date=May 14, 1984 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sy4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 | title=Epson's PX-8 lap computer | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=6 | issue=20 | page=9 | via=Google Books}}</ref>
==History== In the mid-1980s, notebooks and laptops came to represent differing form factors of portable computer in the technology press, with notebooks possessing simplified hardware and a slab-like appearance with exposed keyboard (typified by the HX-20 and the TRS-80 Model 100); and laptops possessing more advanced hardware and a clamshell case to protect the keyboard.<ref>{{cite journal | last=((Editor)) | date=July 1986 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hdeC0k_JHwC&pg=PA8 | title=Cover Story | journal=PC Magazine | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=5 | issue=13 | page=8 | via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name=winter>{{cite journal | last=Winter | first=Christine | date=April 24, 1988 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/282462641/ | title=Lean to Laptops Appears to Be More Than Fitting | journal=Chicago Tribune | page=1 | id={{ProQuest|282462641}}}}</ref> These early notebooks were all but discontinued by 1987, with laptops gaining favor due to their increased versatility.<ref name=winter /> [[File:Sharp PC-4641.jpg|thumb|The Sharp PC-4641, a laptop released in the same month as the UltraLite. Larger laptops continued to be marketed alongside notebooks for several years.]] [[File:Toshiba DynaBook J-3100SS Laptop computer (Notebook computer), Perspective view.jpg|thumb|Toshiba's DynaBook J-3100SS was cited by the company as the "first notebook PC"]] By this point, however, laptops were gaining hardware features faster than the industry could miniaturize their parts, leading to very heavy laptops—some upwards of {{convert|20|lb|kg}}.<ref name="fd">{{cite book | last=Gookin | first=Dan | author-link=Dan Gookin | date=2005 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8jSwAEACAAJ | title=Laptops for Dummies | publisher=Wiley | pages=7–17 | isbn=9780764575556 | via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|16}}<ref>{{cite news | last=Reid | first=T. R. | date=July 31, 1989 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/07/31/laptops-and-workstations-opposite-ends-in-a-crowded-pc-market/00fc5035-4efc-487d-b798-1ef99648648b/ | title=Laptops and Workstations: Opposite Ends in a Crowded PC Market | newspaper=The Washington Post | page=F22 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20240505061154/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1989/07/31/laptops-and-workstations-opposite-ends-in-a-crowded-pc-market/00fc5035-4efc-487d-b798-1ef99648648b/ | archivedate=May 5, 2024 | quote=On the small side, computer makers are responding with alacrity to the complaints about the sheer heft of the PCs that now are sold under the label 'laptop'.}}</ref> In October 1988, NEC released the UltraLite, the first notebook-sized clamshell laptop compatible with the IBM PC. The term ''notebook'' was promptly revived by journalists to describe the new class of laptop that the UltraLite had invented.<ref name="fd" />{{rp|16}}<ref name="wsj">{{cite journal | last=Carroll | first=Paul B. | date=October 5, 1988 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/398086876/ | title=Laptop Computer Market Heats Up with New Models | journal=The Wall Street Journal | publisher=Dow Jones & Company | page=1 | id={{ProQuest|398086876}} | quote=... thin enough to fit in an interoffice envelope, the NEC [UltraLite] even revived talk of 'notebook computers'.}}</ref> Competitors soon came out with competing models, and while initial entries like the UltraLite made concessions in terms of data storage compatibility,<ref>{{cite journal | last=Lewis | first=Peter H. | date=July 23, 1989 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/23/business/the-executive-computer-honey-they-shrunk-the-computer.html | title=Honey, They Shrunk the Computer | journal=The New York Times | page=A11 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525122403/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/23/business/the-executive-computer-honey-they-shrunk-the-computer.html | archivedate=May 25, 2015}}</ref>{{efn|For example, the UltraLite as shipped supported only proprietary solid-state RAM and ROM cartridges to exchange data, as opposed to the standard (for the time) floppy disk.<ref name=doesitagain />}} Compaq's LTE line of notebooks in 1989 was the first to have full feature parity with the heaviest laptops of the time and jumpstarted the industry for these new notebooks, with scores of other manufacturers announcing their own notebooks.<ref name="doesitagain">{{cite journal | last=Lewis | first=Peter H. | date=October 17, 1989 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/17/science/personal-computers-compaq-does-it-again.html | title=Compaq Does It Again | journal=The New York Times | page=C8 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20231019055439/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/17/science/personal-computers-compaq-does-it-again.html | archivedate=October 19, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Bridges | first=Linda | date=March 1, 1999 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A53975770/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Making a Difference | journal=eWeek | publisher=Ziff-Davis | page=76 | via=Gale}}</ref>{{efn|The LTE was prefigured by Toshiba's "book-sized" DynaBook J-3100 in July 1989, which was a smash hit in Japan and similarly featured a 3.5-inch floppy drive. However, its footprint was larger than the LTE by over an inch in both dimensions; it also lacked the option for a hard drive.<ref>{{cite news | last=Schofield | first=Jack | date=June 28, 1990 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A171276664/GPS?u=fcla_main&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=3c897e48 | title=Getting ahead by staying small | work=The Guardian | page=29 | via=Gale}}</ref>}}
In direct response to Compaq,<ref name="managing">{{cite book | chapter=Apple PowerBook: Design Quality and Time to Market | last=Thomke | first=Stefan H. | date=2007 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/managingproducts0000thom/page/59/ | title=Managing Product and Service Department: Text and Cases | publisher=McGraw-Hill/Irwin | pages=59–82 | isbn=9780073023014 | via=the Internet Archive}}</ref>{{rp|59}}<ref name="blue">{{cite book | last=Dell | first=Deborah A. | date=2000 | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780672317569/page/75/ | title=ThinkPad: A Different Shade of Blue | publisher=Sams Publishing | pages=75–78 | isbn=9780672317569 | via=the Internet Archive}}</ref>{{rp|75}} both Apple and IBM, top players in the computer industry, made their hotly anticipated entries in the notebook market in 1991 and 1992, respectively, with the PowerBook and the PS/2 Note (a predecessor to the ThinkPad).<ref>{{cite journal | last=Siegmann | first=Ken | date=October 21, 1991 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/302944102/ | title=Apple Finally Enters Notebook Market | journal=San Francisco Chronicle | page=B1 |id={{ProQuest|302944102}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=March 25, 1992 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/25/business/business-technology-ibm-enters-us-notebook-pc-market.html | title=I.B.M. Enters U.S. Notebook PC Market | journal=The New York Times | page=D7 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526060724/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/25/business/business-technology-ibm-enters-us-notebook-pc-market.html | archivedate=May 26, 2015}}</ref> Under the aegis of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, dozens of Taiwanese computer manufacturers formed a consortium to mass manufacture notebook computers starting in 1991. These Taiwanese notebook computers soon flooded the West, bringing the cost of notebooks down on the low end of the market.<ref>{{cite book | last=Sanderson | first=Susan Walsh | author2=Mustafa Uzumeri | date=1997 | url=https://archive.org/details/managingproductf0000sand/page/58/ | title=Managing Product Families | publisher=McGraw-Hill | pages=57–59 | isbn=9780256228977 | via=the Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Hollis | first=Robert | date=January 27, 1991 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/422656117/ | title=Little 'notebook' computers expected to hit market in a big way | journal=The San Diego Union | publisher=Union-Tribune Publishing | page=I-1 |id={{ProQuest|422656117}}}}</ref>
Laptops and notebooks continued to occupy discrete market segments into the mid-1990s, with unit sales tracked separately by research firms such as Dataquest.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Haggett | first=Scott | date=November 3, 1992 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/national-post-computer-makers-turn-lapto/146691305/ | title=Computer makers turn laptop, notebook front into high-tech war zone | journal=The Financial Post | page=L14 | via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=vowels /> Notebooks were seen as having a footprint exactly that of or smaller than letter paper ({{convert|8.5|by|11|in|cm|disp=or}}),{{efn|name=iso}} while laptops were larger.<ref name=vowels>{{cite journal | last=Vowels | first=Andrew | date=March 1995 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/197745301/ | title=Have computer, will travel | journal=CMA | publisher=Society of Management Accountants of Canada | volume=69 | issue=2 | pages=16–19 | id={{ProQuest|197745301}}}}</ref> This distinction was considered important to business buyers, whose attaché cases often had a compartment exactly that size.<ref name=be>{{cite journal | last=Greene | first=Martin | date=March 1992 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/217871970/ | title=Traveling Desktops | journal=Black Enterprise | publisher=Earl G. Graves Publishing | volume=22 | issue=8 | page=39 | id={{ProQuest|217871970}}}}</ref> An additional distinction was weight, with {{convert|8|lb|kg}} a loose upper limit for what journalists would accept as a "notebook" in the press.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=November 1994 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/221331597/ | title=The Virtual Corporation | journal=Canadian Business | publisher=Rogers Publishing | volume=67 | issue=11 | pages=97, 99 ''et seq'' |id={{ProQuest|221331597}}}}</ref> Aside from size and weight considerations, notebooks were also seen as more sleek and stylish than the bulkier laptops.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Scheier | first=Robert L. | date=November 12, 1990 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A9594115/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Users opt for notebook PCs to avoid 'klutz' image | journal=PC Week | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=7 | issue=45 | pages=S9 ''et seq'' | via=Gale}}</ref> Compared to notebooks, however, laptops saw quicker improvements in processing speed and memory; featured better upgradability; and were less easy to steal.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Perrault | first=Michael | date=July 9, 1993 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A14319464/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=New line of shrinking computers gains acceptance | journal=Denver Business Journal | publisher=American City Business Journals | volume=44 | issue=43 | pages=24 ''et seq'' | via=Gale}}</ref> In addition, the earliest notebooks had monochrome-only LCDs, whereas laptops had color LCDs since 1989 (with NEC's ProSpeed CSX).<ref name=pcu>{{cite journal | last=Zuin | first=Daniela | author2=Angela Annesley | date=April 24, 1991 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A10789835/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Portables | journal=PC User | publisher=EMAP Media | issue=157 | pages=105 ''et seq'' | via=Gale}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Krohn | first=Nico | date=July 11, 1990 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PP1 | title=Color LCDs Come of Age on Laptops | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=12 | issue=24 | pages=1, 109 | via=Google Books}}</ref> Others still preferred laptops for their keyboards, which featured fuller-sized layouts and often superior build quality; journalists evaluated the keyboard poorly in most early notebooks.<ref>{{cite news | last=Suplee | first=Curt | date=April 2, 1991 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/04/02/computers/8f7e7852-2818-426e-bc4f-a0cb9cb4f868/ | title=Laptops in One Sitting: The Ins and Outs, Turn-ons & Turnoffs in the Portables Field | newspaper=The Washington Post | page=E5 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20240505065031/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/04/02/computers/8f7e7852-2818-426e-bc4f-a0cb9cb4f868/ | archivedate=May 5, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Stewart | first=Doug | date=Fall 1992 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A12845163/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=The Office to Go | journal=Inc. | publisher=Mansueto Ventures | volume=14 | issue=12 | pages=26 ''et seq'' | via=Gale}}</ref>
The year 1991 saw the first notebooks with color displays,<ref>{{cite journal | last=Miyazawa | first=Masayuki | date=October 7, 1991 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A11373257/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=World's first color notebook PC debuts | journal=Newsbytes | publisher=The Washington Post Company | via=Gale}}</ref> as well as the emergence of subnotebooks, which occupy a size class in between notebooks and palmtop PCs.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Boudette | first=Neal | date=November 4, 1991 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A11442266/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=PC makers eye subnotebook market for 1992 | journal=PC Week | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=8 | issue=44 | pages=1 ''et seq'' | via=Gale}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last=Reid | first=T. R. | date=April 6, 1992 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/06/honey-they-shrunk-the-computer-again/506a265e-e91b-49fe-9767-9c0726abab43/ | title=Honey, They Shrunk the Computer—Again | newspaper=The Washington Post | page=F18 | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20240505063727/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1992/04/06/honey-they-shrunk-the-computer-again/506a265e-e91b-49fe-9767-9c0726abab43/ | archivedate=May 5, 2024}}</ref> By late 1992, the higher-end notebooks had run into the same miniaturization issues that laptops had encountered in the 1980s, with some notebooks weighing as much as {{convert|14|lb|kg}}.<ref>{{cite journal | last=McCormick | first=John | date=August 31, 1992 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A12531546/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Fast Notebook Computers | journal=Government Computer News | publisher=1105 Media | volume=11 | issue=18 | pages=77 ''et seq'' | via=Gale}}</ref>
Starting in 1997, screen sizes in notebook computers began increasing rapidly, fueled by consumer preference toward larger displays over compactness.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Striegler | first=Thomas D. | date=May 1997 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A19555338/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=The Asian LCD Market | journal=Solid State Technology | publisher=PennWell Publishing | volume=40 | issue=5 | pages=62 ''et seq'' | via=Gale}}</ref> The emergence of LCD panels larger than 12.1 inches diagonally in early 1997 led to the breaking of the 8.5-by-11-inch size barrier.<ref>{{cite journal | last=April | first=Carolyn A. | date=December 16, 1996 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA29 | title=Big screens coming to little notebooks | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=18 | issue=51 | page=29 | via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=DiCarlo | first=Lisa | date=July 22, 1996 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A18502602/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Obstacles delay adoption of 13.3-inch notebook screen | journal=PC Week | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=13 | issue=29 | page=27 | via=Gale | quote='It violates a form factor', said Tuan Tran, product manager in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s mobile computing division, in Corvallis, Ore. 'The 12.1-inch screens fit into an 8.5-by-11-inch package. But this will fundamentally change the size of notebooks'.}}</ref> By 1999, portable manufacturers had started integrating 13-, 14-, and even 15-inch LCD panels on their notebooks.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Sims | first=Calvin | date=September 28, 1999 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/28/business/asia-fires-its-rounds-in-the-flat-screen-war-get-in-line-for-those-notebook-pc-s.html | title=Asia Fires Its Rounds in the Flat-Screen War | journal=The New York Times | page=1 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527105409/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/28/business/asia-fires-its-rounds-in-the-flat-screen-war-get-in-line-for-those-notebook-pc-s.html | archivedate=May 27, 2015}}</ref> Ergonomic considerations, as well the integration of pointing devices such as touchpads, also necessitated increasing the size of laptops to accommodate a larger palm rest area. These developments led to the distinction between and laptops and notebooks becoming blurred by the early 2000s. In English-speaking territories, ''laptop'' is now the more common term to describe any clamshell portable computer—notebook-sized or otherwise—likely because of the lack of ambiguity with actual paper notebooks.<ref name=mueller>{{cite book | last=Mueller | first=Scott | date=2004 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCXVGneKwScC | title=Upgrading and Repairing Laptops | publisher=Que | page=2 | isbn=9780789728005 | via=Google Books}}</ref>
==See also== * Dynabook * Netbook * Smartbook * Ultrabook * Mobile workstation * Pizza-box form factor
==Explanatory notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
==External links== * [https://archive.org/details/notebooks_2 "Notebooks" (1992)], episode of ''Computer Chronicles'' at the Internet Archive
{{Computer sizes}}
Category:Laptops Category:Classes of computers