1983: The Compaq Portable was the first laptop compatible with the IBM operating system and MS-DOS, making it easy to switch data back and forth between laptops and desktop computers.
1983: One of the most popular early laptops, the Kyocera Kyotronic 85 was small and inexpensive, running on AA batteries and measuring about the size of a paper notebook.
1987: Zenith Data Systems won an important US Air Force contract. ZDS won a bid to produce 200,000 laptops for the US Air Force in 1987.
1988: Compaq was the first laptop manufacturer to produce a machine that could display VGA graphics.
1989: Macintosh Portable was the first Apple laptop.
1991: Apple PowerBook brought Apple into the laptop age. Unlike the Macintosh Portable, the PowerBook was truly portable. The PowerBook also included a palm rest and a pointing device, which became the standard for future laptop designs.
1995: Microsoft released Windows 95. The release of Windows 95 stabilized several features of laptop design, and brought about the creation of the style of laptops we know today.