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PBZone talks with Bruce Gee, former PowerBook Product Manager, about the inside story of the PowerBook 100's development and introduction 10 years ago.

On October 21st, 1991, Apple CEO John Sculley introduced the PowerBook 100 to the world at the COMDEX Expo. Apple's first "laptop"--but not first portable--featured a 16 MHz 68000 processor, Mac OS 7.0.1, a 20 MB hard drive, a 9" passive black and white LCD, and 2 megabytes of RAM. Contrasting that with the PowerBook 550 MHz introduced this past week, which features 34 times the megahertz, 1,000 times the hard disk storage, 3 inches short of double the screen size, and 128 times the amount of RAM--all for $300 less. The PowerBook 100 cost $2500 at introduction. However, the more things change, the more they stay the same: both PowerBooks weigh in around 5.1 pounds.

If the PowerBook 100 sounds too slow, even for its time, remember it was the "low end" at $2500. The PowerBook 140 and 170, also introduced at COMDEX in October featured speeds up to 25 MHz, storage up to 40 MB, RAM up to 4 MB, and even...get this...a modem. They also featured price points of $2,899 and $4,599. For more information on these machines, visit EveryMac.com.

Below is our interview with Bruce Gee, who was PowerBook Product Manager 10 years ago during the development of the first machines graced with the title of "PowerBook." His comments about the "behind the scenes" aspects of the PowerBook's development are quite interesting. Most of the figures he mentions refer to the PowerBook 140 and 170, but keep in mind that all three were introduced on the same day. Instead of having one model which had seperate low, middle, and high ends (as with the Wallstreet PowerBooks), Apple chose to give each a different model number.

First, tell us a bit about yourself...when did you come to Apple, what jobs did you hold there, when did you leave, and what are you doing these days?

I came to Apple straight after graduating from business school in 1986. I started work at Apple in the IS department, then in the printer product marketing group. I joined the portable product marketing group just after the Macintosh Portable was announced. After that I worked in the consumer/education desktop group on the first 603 Macs. When I left Apple in 1998 I was director of desktop CPU product marketing.

These days I run a company started a few years ago - GeeThree. We make the Stealth Serial Port and Slick Transitions & Effects for iMovie. We're a Mac-only developer and love creating cool and useful products for the Mac.

Can you give a (brief) history of the development, engineering, and finally, presentation of the PowerBook to the public?

Sometime in late 1989, Compaq announced the LTE portable. While it definitely had some shortcomings (286 processor, small display, barely run Windows 2.0), it set a benchmark for the size of portables and introduced the concept of a notebook computer. At Apple, we assembled a small team to create our next generation portable. It had to be a Macintosh, it had to be notebook-sized, and it needed to done quickly.

To help speed the development of the product (code named TIM), we co-located all of the functional teams in one building. Because portables require more specialized components (LCD displays, keyboards, batteries, drives, etc.) it was important that the team could communicate with each other quickly.

We faced some particular design challenges in creating a Mac notebook. Since it was a graphical environment, the display quality was very important. It was tough to find the right display from the LCD vendors since there really weren't Windows portables - there were just DOS portables. The same goes for the need for a pointing device. Other portables sometimes shipped with desktop mice, but often did not include any. The real trick was to create a notebook-sized computer that still preserved the essence of a Macintosh.

The first public "tease" of the PowerBook was at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in May 1991. At a keynote presentation, Randy Battat closed his speech by talking about some hot new product coming out later in the year. I came out on stage and rolled out a LaserWriter printer on a stand. Randy made some joke, and then pulled out paper tray. In the paper tray sat a PowerBook 100. He pushed a button so the audience could hear the boot sound and held it up to great applause. No one could see any part of the design, but it whetted their appetite for things to come.

The official introduction of the PowerBook was at COMDEX, held in October that year for some strange reason. The Apple booth was cloaked, much like we have seen at recent Macworld Expos. John Scully introduced product to great fanfare. At the show the PowerBook won the first of many rewards - Best of Show - Portables.

In your opinion, what was the most revolutionary feature introduced on the first PowerBook?

The one thing that distinguished the PowerBook from any other computer at the time was the integrated palm rests and trackball. Visually, anyone could identify a PowerBook in a nanosecond. It was the beauty of form and function at its best. The best attempt by the Windows world was the funky trackball from Microsoft that attached to the side of the keyboard like a wart.

One other thing that was revolutionary was AppleTalk Remote Access. Having a portable computer connect to a network was rare. Being able to do this remotely was amazing.

What influences from the first PowerBook do you still see in the latest PowerBooks today?

In my humble opinion, the Titanium PowerBook is the best notebook computer - ever. Apple has continued the tradition of introducing ground-breaking technologies in the PowerBook line. The mega-wide screen and Airport networking are just two examples of how Apple leads the computing industry in innovations in portable computing.

What were some of the technical challenges that arose in developing the first PowerBook?

Probably the biggest technical challenge was to figure out how to include an integrated pointing device and still keep the overall size to notebook proportions. We knew that the trackball from the original Mac Portable worked well from our usability studies, but the width of the product would be too great if it had to be to the side of the keyboard. Somewhere along the way came the idea of putting it below the keyboard. It was a pretty radical idea, but after dozens of prototypes and weeks of user testing we came up with the final design. Even though we needed to include the trackball into the design, we were able to meet our size and weight goals.

Were you investigating the use of any other pointing devices than the trackball? Was it your only option?

At the time, trackballs were the primary pointing device we were looking at. The idea of an external mouse was shot down quickly. Other things like trackpads were not available yet. We had good experiences with trackballs in the past and we needed to get this product out quickly.

In your wildest dreams, did you imagine the 10 year period would bring a PowerBook with a titanium shell, 667 MHz processors, a 15.2" screen, wireless networking, and "trackpads"?

When we introduced the PowerBook, we needed to leapfrog Apple's previous attempt at a portable computer (Mac Portable). We had some clears goals to meet, and felt we had done a good job in creating a quality and innovative product.

What was once considered exotic and a luxury (active matrix display, not to mention color) is now standard. Miniaturization has continued far beyond what we could have imagined. At the time a 2.5" 40 MB drive had everyone in awe. The challenges of cooling and battery life with a 25 MHz processor were tremendous and hope we could get up to 33 MHz someday. And we were pleased to have built-in LocalTalk and a 2400 baud modem.

Today, we see PowerBooks that are capable of being a video-editing workstation. It still continues to amaze me how PowerBooks play a role in changing the way people work, learn and play. I can only hope and dream of what Apple will continue to do with the PowerBook in the next 10 years.

Big thanks go out to Bruce for agreeing to the interview. If you've come to this page from an external site, click here to view our main page's coverage of all the news surrounding the introduction of the new PowerBooks, including some unanswered questions we managed to solve, the pros and cons of their new adapter, shipping times, and high prices in Australia.