Carry Along, Punch In, Read Out

The new portable computers are handy chips off the old block

Last summer, when Adam Osborne, former computer columnist turned entrepreneur, put his Osborne 1 computer on the market, small had never seemed so beautiful. Despite its graceless design--a cross between a World War II field radio and a shrunken instrument panel of a DC-3--the 24-lb. machine combined most of the features of a fully loaded Apple or Radio Shack computer. Better yet, it was completely portable. Sales immediately took off, and some 30,000 units have been sold to date. Osborne carry-along machines are already being used in courtrooms (lawyers' briefs can be recalled on the screen for a quick read), in the wilds of Kenya (to gather zoological research) and in war-torn Afghanistan (U.S. Freelance Writer David Kline used one to file news reports). Where no electric socket exists, the machines operate on portable battery packs.

Now more and more companies are jockeying for a slice of Osborne's success. Last week, at the mammoth National Computer Conference in Houston, at least a dozen U.S. and foreign manufacturers were hawking portable computers that fit on the decks of pleasure boats, under airline seats, into attache cases--even in the palm of the hand. Four of the new machines were Osborne imitations featuring built-in video, detachable typewriterlike keyboards and luggage-type carrying handles. While several models improved on the Osborne's eye-straining 5-in. screen, only one--manufactured by Non-Linear Systems Inc. in Solana Beach, Calif., and sold by Kay Computers--matched its price, $1,795. Osborne still retains the distinction of having produced the Volkswagen of computers.

At the pricier end of the market, Grid Systems of Mountain View, Calif., offers the Mercedes-Benz version. It has a thin, flat screen, folds into a sleek 9 1/4-lb. magnesium package and slips easily into the bottom half of a briefcase. The Compass Computer, as it is called, packs considerable storage capacity--enough to handle the wordage of a long novel. "It's a truly stunning engineering achievement," says one industry analyst. Equally stunning, however, is the price tag: $8,150.

For now, the cheapest hand-held machines, like Radio Shack's new TRS-80 PC2 ($280), are likely to be the most popular, despite drawbacks. Their tiny, one-line display screens are better for solving engineering problems or showing long strings of numbers than for serious writing or business programming, and their calculator-type keyboards are much harder to master than those of larger desktop computers. But they remind some users of the proverbial dog walking on its hind legs: what is surprising is not how well they work, but that they work at all. One U.S. insurance company is considering buying 25,000 of Matsushita's $380 HHC model to let its salesmen calculate premiums right before potential customers' eyes.

Smaller firms like Axlon, IXO and Lexicon are coming out with palm-size terminals that have little or no memory but full keyboards and telephone jacks, so that users can contact data banks like Dow Jones from telephones anywhere. If brokerage houses and banking chains will cooperate, and if the Government will change its regulations, such machines could be used to move money from one account to another or order securities without going through brokers or tellers. Predicts Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell: "People will not pay bills by check within five years."

Programming, or software, is lagging behind the portable-computer revolution, however. Easy-to-use programs are hard to come by, limiting the utility of the most advanced portable computer and frustrating the average user. In recognition of this problem, the keyboard of the new IXO portable terminal has buttons marked YES, NO and--an industry first--DON'T KNOW. There is also a button marked HELP. qed

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