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Comment by bitwize | Hacker News Reader

Surprise: Virtually all laptops are modelled after an Apple machine. The boxy black ones are PowerBook clones. Apple established the dedign language used by every laptop manufacturer since, in the early 90s: clamshell case, hinge at the rear, keyboard towards the back of the lower half with the trackpad front and center and all that wonderful blank space on either side usable as wrist rests.

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Surprise: Apple wasn't the first with a "clamshell case, hinge at the rear, keyboard towards the back of the lower half...all that wonderful blank space on either side usable as wrist rests."

1983: http://cosy.com/language/cosyhard/cosyhard.htm - http://cosy.com/language/cosyhard/ampropn.gif (note: no trackpad - but then, the original powerbook didn't, either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_100, and that round trackball is in just the same position as that round lid latch...)

Apple does a great job integrating elements that may have existed before, and is definitely a trendsetter in styling, but they also get credit for creating a lot of elements that existed before. ("Great artists steal.")

OK, the palm rest and the pointing device, I'll give it to you, but saying that all laptops are Powerbook clones is a big stretch. The "notebook" firm factor originated from NEC UltraLite, released 3 years earlier.

http://old.chuma.org/ultralite/index.shtml

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_UltraLite

I dunno, I have to agree with the other dude that they pretty much just cribbed from the NEC UltraLite.

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