Obit of the Day: Father of the Laptop
In 1982 for the low, low price of $8,000 you could own the first computer that could fit in a briefcase. The GRiD 1101 was 15 by 12 inches, was the first with now ubiquitous “clamshell” design, and a monochrome 320 x 240 pixel display. And you had better have a hearty lap, because the GRiD weighed in at an impressive 11 pounds. Because of it’s high price, the GRiD was used mainly by the U.S. military and on NASA’s space shuttle.
The computer was designed in 1979 by Bill Moggridge for GRiD systems. It was Moggridge’s idea to have the screen fold down upon the keyboard, a design aspect that GRiD made millions licensing to other laptop manufacturers. Designing the GRiD 1101 was the first time that Mr. Moggridge had used a computer.
After the success of the GRiD laptop, Mr. Moggridge would spend the rest of his career in “interaction design,” developing designs for electronic products that were most user-friendly. He joined IDEO in 1991 a design firm that would design Apple’s first mouse, Microsoft’s second mouse, and the Palm V. (OOTD does not know if Mr. Moggridge specifically worked on those designs.)
Bill Moggridge received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Design Awards in 2009 and the 2010 Prince Philip Designers Prize for “a design career which has upheld the highest standards and broken new ground.”
He passed away at the age of 69.
Sources: New York Times, Wikipedia.org, IDEO.com
(Image is courtesy of oldcomputers.net)
