"was briefly considered a contemporary of Bill G and Steve Jobs"
I think you mean that he was considered to be a "competitor" or someone "playing in the same league". Contemporary means someone who has lived at the same time, which he certainly was.
Agree with you, it should be competitor.
> It was the first true mass-produced portable PC
Erm... "portable" is not the word I'd use. Most would settle for "transportable". I'd rather use "draggable".
I remember "luggable" as the adjective of choice for such machines through the late 80's and early 90's. The PC Magazine columnists (Dvorak and Seymour and others) were fond of it.
I remember "luggable". There was an April fool's section in BYTE in the late 80's advertising a line of hand luggage made to look like portable computers. The text said something about the size being painfully realistic and not fitting under an airplane seat.
Did you notice this Ad they had for Osborne? Please scroll down to see the 'The Guy on the left doesn't stand a chance' Ad, on the 2nd page of the article (http://technologizer.com/2011/04/01/osborne-computer/2/ )
It almost could have been an Ad for a 'Laptop' as we know it.
It seems he was a failed (relatively speaking) genius. He is credited with building the first computer for people. Also was briefly considered a contemporary of Bill G and Steve Jobs:
"on April 3rd, 1981 when a startup called Osborne Computer Corporation announced the Osborne 1 at the West Coast Computer Faire at San Francisco’s Brooks Hall. It was the first true mass-produced portable PC and one of the most popular computers of its time" (Source: http://technologizer.com/2011/04/01/osborne-computer/)
He also: "he founded another company that also collapsed–but not before helping to pioneer the idea of really cheap software"
He later died in India at the age of 64, in 2003. Where he was born and educated when he was a very young.