Happy birthday to the ThinkPad- first Tablet PC

One of the longest running lines of mobile gear is the ThinkPad, begun at IBM and now carried by Lenovo, the line usually encompassed very innovative technology at a premium price.  According to Lenovo, today is the 15th birthday of the ThinkPad line as the first model shipped in 1992.  What most people don't realize is the first ThinkPad, the IBM 2521 ThinkPad, was a pen-based PC running the PenPoint operating system from Go Corporation.  That's right, the first ThinkPad was a Tablet PC!  The 2521 also incorporated a 20 MB flash drive showing how innovative IBM was with the ThinkPad line.  IBM also had arguably the first UMPC in the ThinkPad line, the PC110, a palmtop device with a 4 MB internal flash drive.  This UMPC released in 1995 was only available in Japan.  Happy birthday to the ThinkPad!

(via Reg Hardware)

Comments

[Al]

Well here ya go. I did this review not to long ago, on the Dauphin. The first UMPC. Thought you might enjoy it ;)

http://www.umpcportal.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=682

[JC]

I wonder of anyone that ordered the IBM 2521 has had their order shipped yet.

Maybe they have, since it was IBM back then. Lenovo has dropped the ball repeatedly on order fulfillment, to a ridiculous degree, from the X40 to the X60 to the X61. Their customer service SUCKS!

My estimated ship date for my computer was two months later, literally!

Anyone thinking about ordering from Lenovo, see this blog (on Lenovo's own site) and the hundreds of pissed off customers.

http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=84#comments

[ArchiMark]

Had a PC110 for awhile, neat lil' unit...way ahead of it's time...

Clear that FlipStart got their design cues from the PC110...

;-)