Laptop computers were first designed to meet the special computing needs of certain niche markets. Manufacturers targeted highly mobile professionals who certainly needed portable computers to do their jobs. These enabled business professionals to perform efficiently even when they are not in their offices.

From a mere niche market product, these computers have become so powerful that almost everyone has benefited from it. Most professionals now utilize laptop computers to accomplish their daily tasks. Laptop computers are also being used by students in schools.

The Evolution of Laptop Computers:

Early generations of portable computers were used by NASA on its space shuttle missions. These are the first generation laptops and they are bulky with only 340 kilobytes of memory. These portable computers featured foldable display screens so technology historians considered them as the father of modern laptops.

In 1981, the first text-book size laptop computer was introduced. Such advancements were made possible because of the increasing sophistication of microchip technology. This early laptop featured a foldable screen, a built-in modem, and floppy drive devices. There were also installed programs in these kinds of early laptop computers.

More advances in microchip technology accelerated since mid 1980's. The need for highly portable and powerful computers also emerged. Because of these, laptop computers became razor-thin, lighter, and extremely powerful.

Today, modern laptops will be no bigger than a small brown envelope. They are also ultra light and equipped with hard drives that have amazing storage capacities. Modern laptop computers also have faster processor speed and typically have 1 to 5 GB of available RAM.

Typical Features of a Modern Computer Laptop:

What you can see on your desktop can also be found on any laptop. Even removable media devices such as DVD ROMs can be supported by high end laptop computers. You can also find different kinds of hubs and ports on a laptop so you can use USB drives, read memory cards, and establish mobile phone connections.

Internetworking is also fully supported by modern laptops through LAN cards, WiFi modules, modems, and satellite connection devices. These features are very useful for those using laptop computers in businesses and for personal computing. Even high impact gamers and web power users will find a laptop computer suitable for their needs.

Laptop computers can also quickly distribute information across the Internet. Usually, journalists can capture videos and edit them directly on their laptops. They can instantly broadcast news through the Internet.

New Laptop Computers for Everybody:

Because a full-featured laptop computer is not cheap, IT companies started producing affordable Netbooks and subnotebooks. These are laptops with limited functionalities but will be suitable for all types of mobile computing.

You will be able to check emails, process documents, browse the web and watch online videos through a netbook. These netbooks normally have smaller hard drive capacities but will be fast enough for normal web browsing. Gamers can also use these new netbooks.

Mobile computing became possible because of laptop computers. More advances to laptop computers will be introduced as computer technology becomes more sophisticated.