Man in a briefcase: the social construction of the laptop computer and the emergence of a type form

1 Atkinson, P. ‘The (in)difference engine: explaining the disappearance
of diversity in the design of the personal computer’,
Journal of Design History, vol. 13, no. 1, 2000, pp. 59–72.
2 J. Westly, the founder of ‘Husky Computers’ claims his battery
powered ‘Husky’ (see Fig. 10) to be the fi rst laptop, but it had
no alphabetical keyboard input, and was specifi cally designed
as a rugged computer for data collection in adverse envir -
onments. See The Obsolete Computer Museum: http://www.
obsoletecomputermuseum.org> [Accessed 10 February 2001]
3 Interview with Bill Moggridge at the London Offi ces of
IDEO, 15 June 2000. (See also ‘The Compass computer: the
design challenges behind the innovation’ in Innovation – The
Journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America Winter 1983
pp. 4-8).
4 Ibid.
5 M. Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of
the Computer Age, London, Orion Business Books, 2000 p. xiv
suggests the date of the fi rst appearance of the ‘Dynabook’ to
be in this thesis in 1969. However, interviews with Alan Kay
on websites give the date he conceived it as 1968 (http://www.
squeakland.org/school/HTML/essays/dynabook_revisited.
htm (accessed 3 March 2005) and http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Alan_Kay (accessed 10 March 2005)). However, a
Dynabook-type concept was presented to potential clients of
Xerox (Wesleyan University, Middletown Connecticut, USA)
in 1967 as part of a fully digitized library and student learning
system (Tim Putnam, personal communication), before Kay
joined Xerox (1970 or, on some sites, 1972).
6 Learning Research Group, ‘Personal Dynamic Media’ cited in
L. Press, ‘Before the Altair: the history of personal computing’ in
Communications of the ACM, vol. 36, no. 9, September 1993, p. 31.
7 A. Kay, ‘Personal computing’ cited in L. Press, (1993) op. cit., p. 29.
8 B. Osgerby, ‘So you’re the famous Simon Templar’ in B. Osgerby
& A. Gough-Yates (eds.) Action TV: Tough Guys, Smooth
Operators and Foxy Chicks, London, Routledge, 2001, p. 44.
9 M. O’Day, ‘Of leather suits and kinky boots’ in B. Osgerby &
A. Gough-Yates (eds.) Action TV: Tough Guys, Smooth Operators
and Foxy Chicks, London, Routledge, 2001, p. 222.
10 Sony introduced the TR-63 ‘pocketable’ radio in 1957, at a
cost equivalent to an average Japanese worker’s monthly salary.
Unfortunately, it was just larger than a businessman’s normal
Fig 18. Newspaper advert for Samsung X10 Notebook, 2003 shirt pocket. Sony salesmen were consequently issued with custom-made shirts with slightly larger pockets. (http://www.
sony.net/Fun/SH/1-6/h2.html [accessed 6th January 2005]).
11 The famous Bond attaché case fi rst appeared in the fi lm ‘From
Russia With Love’ (1963) and contained 50 gold sovereigns, 40
rounds of ammunition, a folding rifl e with infrared telescopic
sight, and a can of tear gas. (http://www.007forever.com/my -
stique/gadgets003.html [accessed 5 January 2005]) A collector’s
website describes the children’s toy version as being produced
by Gilbert/Multiple Products from 1965, and states they are
currently valued at $2000. (see http://www.towson.edu/
~fl ynn/toys.html [accessed 5 January 2005]).
12 S. Ewen (1988) cited in M. O’Day, op. cit., p. 229.
13 Ibid., p. 229.
14 B. Osgerby, op. cit., p. 46.
15 B. Osgerby, Playboys in Paradise: Masculinity, Youth and Leisurestyle
in Modern America, Oxford, Berg, 2001, p. 162.
16 Anon, ‘In the year 2001, the shape of everyday things . . .’, in
Esquire, May 1966, p. 116.
17 T. Pinch & W. Bijker ‘The social construction of facts and
artifacts: or how the sociology of science and the sociology of
technology might benefi t each other’ in W. Bijker, T. Hughes
& T. Pinch (eds.) The Social Construction of Technological Systems:
New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology,
MIT Press, 1987, p. 28.
18 See G. McCracken, Culture and Consumption, (IUP, Indiana,
1988) Part III, which describes objects as markers of status and
hierarchies of relationships.
19 M. Csikszentmihalyi & E. Rochberg-Halton, The Meaning
of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1981, p. 29.
20 Ibid., p. 38.
21 Ibid., p. 38.
22 Ibid., p. 39.
23 J. Williamson, Decoding Advertisements, Marion Boyars, London,
1978, p. 47.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 C. Campbell, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern
Consumerism, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1987, p. 89.
27 J. Williamson, op. cit., p. 31.
28 Ibid., p. 35.
29 Bubble Memory stored data in cylindrical magnetic domains,
or ‘bubbles’ in a thin fi lm of magnetic material. The presence
of a domain indicated binary 1, the absence, a zero. (http://
www.xs4all.nl/~fjkraan/pc5000/bubble.html) ‘It was once
widely believed that bubble memory would become one of
the leading memory technologies, but these promises have
not been fulfi lled’ (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/
b/bubble_memory.html) [both accessed 7 January 2005].
30 R. Slater Portraits in Silicon, MIT Press, Massachusetts, 1987, p. 323.
31 M. Aartsen, ‘Portable computers, a buyer’s guide’, in Design,
March 1984, p. 48.
32 I. Stobie, ‘They all laughed, but . . .’, in Practical Computing,
January 1983, p. 108.
33 M. Aartsen, op. cit., p. 48.
34 R. Slater, op. cit., p. 326.
35 R. Cringely, Accidental Empires, Penguin, London, 1996,
p. 173.
36 T. Carlson, The Obsolete Computer Museum, op. cit.
37 I. Stobie, ‘Tandy 100’, in Practical Computing, August 1983,
pp. 96–98; and I. Stobie, ‘Olivetti M-10’, in Practical Computing,
December 1983, pp. 88–89.
38 I. Stobie, op. cit., August 1983, p. 98.
39 Interview with John Ellenby conducted over the telephone,
9 February 2001.
40 Interview with John Ellenby conducted by email, response
dated 11 February 2001.
41 Interview with Bill Moggridge, op. cit.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
48 ‘The Compass computer: the design challenges behind the
innovation’, op. cit. (see note 3), p. 7.
49 Ibid., p. 4.
50 Interview with John Ellenby conducted over the telephone,
op. cit.
51 It is important to note that even though other forms of portable
computer have since appeared, such as PDAs and ‘tablet’
computers, they have complemented rather than replaced the
laptop. PDAs have signifi cant amounts of memory, but are
usually seen as a detachable peripheral of the computers with
which they dock. Tablet computers are laptops with
demountable screens, but have yet to prove popular. The fl at
form and way they are held and used with a stylus could
arguably connote a clipboard and hence not appear ‘executive’
enough.
52 Hebdige, D., Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things,
Routledge, London, 1988, p. 80.
53 Interview with John Neale conducted by email, response dated
28 January 2001.
54 Interview with John Ellenby conducted over the telephone,
op. cit.
55 See, for example, R. Silverstone, & E. Hirsch, Consuming
Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces, Routledge,
London, 1992, and A. Cawson, I. Miles & L. Haddon, The
Shape of Things to Consume: Delivering Information Technology into
the Home, Avebury, Aldershot, 1995.
56 E. Lally, At Home with Computers, Berg, Oxford, 2002,
p. 167.