August 27 marked the 32nd anniversary of the release of the Compaq Presario. This was a family of PCs that included a monitor, a modem, and, for many, their first America Online CD-ROM. Learn more in this edition of Tech Time Warp, where we revisit the machines that helped usher in the internet age.
The Presario was a great, consumer-friendly machine—both easy to use and retailing at an affordable price ($1,400). But it was hardly the first offering in the Compaq lineup worthy of note. The lovable and “luggable” Compaq Portable (all 28 pounds of it) was the first to put the Texas computer company on the map.
From pie shop to prototype
The story of Compaq began at a House of Pies located on a main drag in Houston. Rod Canion, James Harris, and William Murto (all senior engineers at Texas Instruments) were brainstorming ways to invest their collective $3,000. Their ideas included a Mexican restaurant and a beeping device to locate lost items (an early AirTag?). Luckily for the then-faltering Houston economy, they decided to create a portable IBM-compatible PC—an idea they sketched out on the back of a placemat. They founded Compaq Computer Corporation in February 1982. Compaq (its name derived from “Compatibility” and “Quality”) was the first to legally “clone” IBM PCs.
For a look at the Portable, there is perhaps no better introduction than this commercial for the Portable 2 featuring John Cleese, which aired exclusively in the UK. In the words of the Smithsonian Institution, the Portable “resembled a suitcase,” with the keyboard on the bottom. It featured two 5-1/4-inch floppy drives, along with a power cord and fan. (This was not a battery-operated machine.)
During its first year of operations, Compaq sold 53,000 computers, generating over $111 million. The staff grew from 20 to 600. Some of that staff is probably not thrilled that the 1988 Compaq employee picnic, including an employee talent show, lives on for all to enjoy on YouTube—in parts one and two, no less.
In 2002, Compaq was acquired by competitor HP, and the brand was officially retired in 2013
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Photo: Alla Greeg / Shutterstock
This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.