Might 8, 1997: Apple launches the PowerBook 2400c laptop computer, a 4.4-pound “subnotebook” that’s the MacBook Air of its day.
The PowerBook 2400c predicts the rise of speedy, light-weight notebooks, whereas additionally paying tribute to Apple’s previous. Its design echoes the unique PowerBook 100. Even years later, it stays a cult favourite amongst many Mac customers.
PowerBook 2400c: Impressively skinny, highly effective Apple laptop computer
In the present day, a 4.4-pound laptop computer doesn’t sound notably spectacular. The fashionable MacBook Air weighs lower than 3 kilos, making the PowerBook 2400c appear chunky by comparability. Nevertheless, it got here in at about half the burden of most laptops within the late Nineteen Nineties. That made it a powerful engineering feat from Apple.
Regardless of its skinny profile, the PowerBook 2400c proved surprisingly highly effective. Manufactured by Apple’s previous rival IBM, it got here with PCI-based structure with a 180 MHz PowerPC 603e processor and 256KB of Degree 2 cache. This allowed it to run the usual enterprise purposes of the time nearly in addition to the PowerBook 3400c, which Apple known as “the quickest pocket book pc on the planet.”
That software program appeared good on the PowerBook 2400c’s 800×600, 10.4-inch energetic matrix TFT show. The graphics had been a step above what many laptops supplied on the time.
The pc additionally boasted a 1.3GB IDE arduous drive and 16MB of RAM (expandable to 48MB). Its lithium-ion battery delivered two to 4 hours of use between expenses.
Loads of ports and expandability
Picture: Tokumeigakarinoaoshima CC
The PowerBook 2400c got here with a good array of ports, too, together with one Apple Desktop Bus, one serial port, one audio out, one audio in and one HD1–30 SCSI connection, together with the onboard Mini–15 show connector.
It additionally packed two Kind I/II PC Card slots and the choice for a double-high Kind III PC card for added expandability.
Later, when different Apple laptops of the period grew to become outdated, this stage of expandability gave customers entry to all the things from USB and FireWire to Ethernet and wi-fi networking.
… however no CD-ROM or built-in floppy drive
As with all light-weight laptop computer, nonetheless, Apple made some compromises. To realize the PowerBook 2400c’s skinny kind issue, Apple ditched the CD-ROM drive and inside floppy drive. Nevertheless, the laptop computer got here with an exterior floppy.
Nonetheless, the extent of expandability made the PowerBook 2400c a pc that lived properly past just a few years. It got here preloaded with the favored Mac OS 8, however with the right modifications, it might run something from System 7 to 2002’s Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. Apple’s first skinny laptop computer was notably well-liked in Japan, the place folks favored light-weight laptops lengthy earlier than Western shoppers did.
Steve Jobs kills the PowerBook 2400c
Sadly, this skinny and light-weight laptop computer didn’t survive the wrath of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. When he returned to Apple in 1997 and subsequently assumed full management (he took over as interim CEO simply two months after the PowerBook 2400c was launched), he started scrapping initiatives to streamline Apple’s choices.
By the next yr, Apple had simply 4 main merchandise: the iMac, the Energy Macintosh G3 and the PowerBook G3 sequence laptops. Jobs kicked the PowerBook 2400c to the curb in March 1998.
Do you keep in mind Apple’s first thin-and-light laptop computer? Depart your feedback under.
