Return to Answer

Another contender would be the 1970 Porta Co by Data Products Corp., a well-renowned manufacturer of peripherals and disks. They used an impact printer, giving a better image, but also additional weight to carry.

Another contender would be the 1970 Porta Com by Data Products Corp., a well-renowned manufacturer of peripherals and disks. They used an impact printer, giving a better image, but also additional weight to carry.

While the original 1971 Silent 700, like the above 735 were quite a large beast, weighting more than 10kg, later models, like the shown 745 (below) became barely larger than an average typewriter. They were an all in one mobile solutions including an acoustic coupler or integrated modem and (optional) batteries.

While TI had a quite strong stand in the market for portable terminals, they were neither the only or even the first. Computer Transceiver Systems Execuport series, starting with the Execuport 300 in 1969 beat them by more than two years. They as well sold units way into the 1980s - the last development was an improved Executell 400, introduced as late as 1982(!)

Another contender would be the 1970 Porta Co by Data Products Corp. well renown manufacturer o peripherals and disks. They used an impact printer, giving a better image, but also additional weight to carry.

While such terminals have usually been a niche for specialized manufacturers and often been sold by third party as part of turnkey solutions, computer companies did also try to cover that area, like DEC with their LA12 series.

Keep in mind, there were no portable computers in the 1970s - at least not in a way that would allow use like today's laptops. A small printing terminal could fill the gap by connecting to a central system providing the functionality. The salesman only had to key in the customers data and not only get a tailored offer (*1), but with printout for the customer or even print the contracts right away, closing the sale in one visit.

A CRT based terminal would have been way to heavy, eating up too much power and at the same time still needing an additional printer to fulfil the same role. It wasn't until Kyotronic style handheld devices (Olivetti M10, Tandy M100, Epson HX20, etc.) began to take over that niche by not only using lightwight LCD, but as well putting the needed computing power and data storage right into the same suitcase.

While the original 1971 Silent 700, like the above 735, was quite a large beast, weighing more than 10kg, later models, like the shown 745 (below) became barely larger than an average typewriter. They were an all in one mobile solutions including an acoustic coupler or integrated modem and (optional) batteries.

While TI had quite a strong standing in the market for portable terminals, they were neither the only or even the first. Computer Transceiver Systems Execuport series, starting with the Execuport 300 in 1969 beat them by more than two years. They sold units well into the 1980s - the last development was an improved Executell 400, introduced as late as 1982(!)

Another contender would be the 1970 Porta Co by Data Products Corp., a well-renowned manufacturer of peripherals and disks. They used an impact printer, giving a better image, but also additional weight to carry.

While such terminals have usually been a niche for specialized manufacturers and often been sold by third parties as part of turnkey solutions, computer companies did also try to cover that area, such as DEC with their LA12 series.

Keep in mind, there were no portable computers in the 1970s - at least not in a way that would allow use like today's laptops. A small printing terminal could fill the gap by connecting to a central system providing the functionality. The salesman only had to key in the customer's data and not only get a tailored offer (*1), but with printout for the customer or even print the contracts right away, closing the sale in one visit.

A CRT-based terminal would have been way too heavy, eating up too much power and still needing an additional printer to fulfil the same role. It wasn't until Kyotronic style handheld devices (Olivetti M10, Tandy M100, Epson HX20, etc.) began to take over that niche by not only using lightwight LCD, but also putting the needed computing power and data storage right into the same suitcase.

While such terminals have usually been a nice for specialized manufacturers and often been sold as part of turnkey solutions, computer companies did offer such systems as well, like DEC with their LA12 series.

*1 - at least that's what they were told to tell :))

Another contender would be the 1970 Porta Co by Data Products Corp. well renown manufacturer o peripherals and disks. They used an impact printer, giving a better image, but also additional weight to carry.

While such terminals have usually been a niche for specialized manufacturers and often been sold by third party as part of turnkey solutions, computer companies did also try to cover that area, like DEC with their LA12 series.

*1 - At least that's what they were told to tell :))