Zenith SupersPort
Developer |
|
---|---|
Manufacturer | Zenith Data Systems |
Type | Laptop |
Release date | April 1988 |
Operating system | MS-DOS |
CPU |
|
Display | MastersPort |
The SupersPort is a line of
Development and release
The lowest-cost initial entries in the SupersPort line, running an
Both the 8088 SupersPort (actually featuring a
The TurbosPort and 8088 SupersPort were released to the public in April 1988.
Sales
Although Zenith refused to disclose sales figures of their computers, the company reportedly sold roughly 173,910 SupersPorts by the end of 1988, or 25.5 percent of all 682,000 laptops sold that year.[8]
In May 1988, as part of a multi-million dollar agreement,[16] Zenith became the official supplier of laptops for the Master's program of Harvard Business School. As part of this agreement, Harvard recommended incoming post-graduates acquire the SupersPort 286 for use with coursework.[17] Harvard Business School's Master's program in fall 1988 had 800 students registered to enter; Zenith expected to sell roughly 640 units to them. The School had prescribed IBM PCs to students in the prior four years; Zenith beat out IBM and four other competitors for the 1988 contract.[16] Later that May, Zenith signed an agreement with Hewlett-Packard to act as an OEM for HP, rebadging the SupersPort 286 as a laptop under Hewlett-Packard's Vectra line of IBM PC compatibles. While Hewlett-Packard had sold two models of laptops of its own design under the Vectra line, it only achieved limited success,[1] and the company admitted to the press that Zenith's product was more feature-packed and offered higher performance.[14] The SupersPort-based HP laptop was released as the Vectra LS/12 in January 1989, by which point the SupersPort 286 was among the top-selling laptops on the market.[1][2]: 106
Reception
Sherwin Levinson of
Reviewing the 8088 SupersPort in PC Magazine, Nora Georgas wrote that while the laptop was more expensive than Toshiba's Toshiba T1000, she preferred the SupersPort's screen and keyboard and called it a "good low-end laptop" overall.[19] A year after its release, in October 1989, Alfred Poor wrote in PC Magazine that the 8088 SupersPort was beginning to fall behind in usability and speed, calling the hard disk speed unremarkable and the processing speed mediocre. He praised the laptop's backlit display and called the battery life reasonable, but found the design of the battery attachment mechanism flawed, as it prevented users from plugging in peripherals to the rear ports without first removing the rather bulky battery and unlatching the peripheral port door.[11]
Later models
- SupersPort 286e (October 1989) – retains the zero wait state, 12 MHz 80286 processor of the SupersPort 286 but changes the display to a backlit supertwist LCD with a resolution of 640×480, on account of its upgraded graphics chip now supporting VGA resolution modes; 20 or 40 MB hard drive options[20][21]
- SupersPort SX (October 1989) – 16 MHz
- SupersPort 486 (fall 1991) – 25 MHz
- SupersPort 486SX (fall 1991) – 20 MHz
References
- ^ a b c Staff writer (January 8, 1989). "Hewlett gets new laptops". Chicago Tribune: 2 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b c Howard, Bill (July 1989). "286 Laptops: Compute en Route". PC Magazine. 8 (13). Ziff-Davis: 95–142 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c Staff writer (May 1991). "Industry News". MichNet News. 6 (2). Merit Network: 13 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c d e Winter, Christine (April 20, 1988). "New Light Cast on Laptops". Chicago Tribune: 1 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Roman, Susan (April 25, 1988). "Zenith release laptops for the business market". MIS Week. 9 (17). Condé Nast Publications: 32 – via Gale.
- ^ Machrone, Bill (January 17, 1989). "5th Annual Awards for Technical Excellence". PC Magazine. 8 (1). Ziff-Davis: 95–122 – via Google Books.
- ^ Reid, T. R. (November 7, 1988). "Zenith Reaches a New Peak With High-Speed, Durable Laptop". The Washington Post. p. F32 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b Staff writer (December 21, 1988). "25.5% of Sales: Zenith May Be Laptop Leader". San Francisco Chronicle. Chronicle Publishing Company: C4 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b Lewis, Peter H. (April 26, 1988). "2 High-Power Portables". The New York Times: C6. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b Patton, Carole (April 25, 1988). "Zenith Introduces Line of High-Power Portables". InfoWorld. 10 (17). IDG Publications: 23 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Poor, Alfred (October 17, 1989). "Zenith Data Systems: Zenith SupersPort". PC Magazine. 8 (17). Ziff-Davis: 276 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c Levinson, Sherwin (October 17, 1988). "SupersPort 286 Embodies New Era of Laptop Features". InfoWorld. 10 (42). IDG Publications: 76–78 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Dunker, Mauricio (May 2, 1988). "Zenith Data Systems wheels in new laptops and a new look". Computer Reseller News (258). UBM LLC: 154 – via Gale.
- ^ a b Staff writer (June 1, 1988). "Hewlett-Packard in Zenith Accord". The New York Times: D5. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Lewis, Peter H. (March 28, 1989). "Loving Hands at Home". The New York Times: C10. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b "Zenith Wins Computer Contract at Harvard". Chicago Tribune: 11D. May 8, 1988 – via ProQuest.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|agency=
ignored (help) - ^ "Zenith's Harvard Cheer". The New York Times: D2. May 5, 1988. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015 – via ProQuest.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|agency=
ignored (help) - ^ Papkin, Allan S. (March 12, 1989). "Zenith SupersPort 286 is a winner". UPI.com. United Press International. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018.
- ^ Georgas, Nora (May 31, 1988). "Zenith Debuts the Battery-Powered TurbosPort/386, Two New Laptops". PC Magazine. 7 (10). Ziff-Davis: 33–34 – via Google Books.
- ^ Pane, Patricia J. (October 23, 1989). "Zenith Offers 20-MHz TurbosPort 386e". InfoWorld. 11 (43). IDG Publications: 25 – via Google Books.
- ^ Brown, Bruce (March 13, 1990). "Zenith Data Systems: Zenith SupersPort 286e". PC Magazine. 9 (5). Ziff-Davis: 278–280 – via Google Books.
- ^ Pane, Patricia J. (October 19, 1989). "Zenith Introduces the Industry's First Battery-Powered 386SX Portable Computer". InfoWorld. 11 (42). IDG Publications: 5 – via Google Books.
- ^ O'Brien, Bill (March 13, 1990). "Zenith Data Systems: Zenith SupersPort SX". PC Magazine. 9 (5). Ziff-Davis: 190–194 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Graggs, Tuseda A. (May 27, 1991). "Zenith Introduces Power-Saving Portable PCs". InfoWorld. 13 (21). IDG Publications: 13 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Fitzgerald, Michael (May 27, 1991). "Notebook PCs ride portable power wave". Computerworld. XXV (21). IDG Publications: 39 – via Google Books.