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Undid revision 1309720171 by 206.219.162.12 (talk)

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{{Short description|British computer designer (1939–2003)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Adam Osborne
| image = Adam Osborne.png
| image_size = 190px
| caption = Osborne in 1983
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|3|6|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Bangkok]], Thailand
| death_date = {{death date and age|2003|3|18|1939|3|6|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Kodaikanal]], India
| field = Computer engineering
| work_institution = [[Osborne Computer Corporation]]
| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|
* [[University of Birmingham]]
* [[University of Delaware]]
}}
| doctoral_advisor =
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = [[Osborne 1]]
}}
'''Adam Osborne''' (6 March 1939 – 18 March 2003) was a British author, [[computer software|software]] publisher, and computer designer who founded several companies in the United States and elsewhere. He introduced the [[Osborne 1]], the first commercially successful portable computer.

== Early life ==
Osborne was born to British parents in [[Bangkok]], Thailand on 6 March 1939.<ref name="Schofield">{{cite web |last1=Schofield |first1=Jack |author-link1=Jack Schofield (journalist) |title=Obituary: Adam Osborne |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/mar/27/guardianobituaries.jackschofield |website=The Guardian |access-date=28 March 2019 |date=27 March 2003}}</ref> His father, [[Arthur Osborne (writer)|Arthur Osborne]], was a teacher of eastern religion and philosophy<ref name="Schofield" /> and a lecturer in English at [[Chulalongkorn University]]. All members of the family were fluent in the [[Tamil language]]. He spent [[World War II]] in [[Tiruvannamalai]], in southern India, with his mother. There they were frequent visitors to Sri Ramana Maharshi's Ashram <ref name="Schofield" /> He attended Presentation Convent School in [[Kodaikanal]] until Class 6.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} In 1950, the Osborne family moved back to England.<ref name="independent">{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/adam-osborne-36407.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626192414/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/adam-osborne-36407.html |archive-date=26 June 2018 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |title=Adam Osborne: Pioneer of the portable computer |date=5 April 2003 |work=The Independent |access-date=26 June 2018 |language=en-GB }}</ref> From the age of 11, he was educated at a Catholic boarding school in Warwickshire but from 1954 to 1957 was a pupil at the grammar school [[North Leamington School|Leamington College for Boys]], where he played chess.<ref name="Schofield" /> He graduated with a degree in [[chemical engineering]] from the [[University of Birmingham]] in 1961,<ref name="Schofield" /> and received his PhD from the [[University of Delaware]] in 1968.<ref name="Schofield" /> It was while living in the United States that he learned to write computer code.<ref name="Schofield" /> He obtained a position as a [[chemical engineer]] with [[Shell Oil]], in California, but was dismissed.<ref name="Schofield" />{{sfn|Osborne|Dvorak|1984|p=5}}

== Publishing ==
Osborne was a pioneer in the computer book field, founding a company in 1972 that specialized in easy-to-read computer manuals. By 1977, Osborne & Associates had 40 titles in its catalogue. In 1979, it was bought by [[McGraw-Hill]] and continued as an imprint of McGraw-Hill, "Osborne/McGraw-Hill".<ref name="nyt"/><ref name="independent" />{{sfn|Osborne|Dvorak|1984|p=9}} He also wrote several books.<ref name="independent" />{{sfn|Osborne|Dvorak|1984|p=7}} One of them, ''An Introduction To Microcomputers'', sold 300,000 copies.<ref name="Schofield" />

== Computers ==

[[File:Osborne 1 open.jpg|thumb| An [[Osborne 1]] ]]

Osborne was known to frequent the [[Homebrew Computer Club]]'s meetings around 1975. He created the first commercially available [[portable computer]], the [[Osborne 1]], released in April 1981. It weighed 24.5 pounds (12 kg), cost US$1795—just over half the cost of a computer from other manufacturers with comparable features—and ran the popular [[CP/M]] 2.2 [[operating system]].<ref name="byte198209"/> It was designed to fit under an [[airline seat]].<ref name=atlantic>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198207/fallows-computer/2 |title=Living With a Computer |first=James |last=Fallows |date=July 1982 |magazine=Atlantic Magazine |access-date=21 May 2010 |archive-date=16 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516005325/https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198207/fallows-computer/2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> At its peak, [[Osborne Computer Corporation]] shipped 10,000 units of "Osborne 1" per month.<ref name=Grzanka84>{{cite magazine|first=Leonard G.|last=Grzanka |title=Requiem for a Pioneer |magazine=Portable Computer |date=January 1984 |issue=1 |volume=2 |pages=29–34 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_portable-computer_1984-01_2_1/page/29/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}</ref> Osborne was one of the first personal computing pioneers to understand fully that there was a wide market of buyers who were not computing hobbyists: the Osborne 1 included word processing and spreadsheet software.<ref name="byte198209"/> This was at a time when [[IBM]] would not bundle hardware and software with their PCs, selling separately the operating systems, monitors, and even cables for the monitor.

Adam Osborne's experience in the computer industry gave his new company credibility.<ref name="hogan19810413">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dj4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA1 | magazine=InfoWorld | title=Osborne Introduces Portable Computer | access-date=4 April 2011 | last=Hogan |first=Thom | date=13 April 1981 | publisher=IDG | page=1 |issue=7 |volume=3}}</ref> Osborne Computer Corporation advertisements compared Adam Osborne's influence on the personal computer market to [[Henry Ford]]'s influence on transportation.<ref name="byte198209">{{cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1982-09/page/n31/mode/2up | title=The $1795 Business Computer that is changing the way people go to work. | magazine=BYTE | date=September 1982 | access-date=19 October 2013 | type=Advertisement | pages=31}}</ref> It is said that in 1983, Osborne bragged about two advanced new computers his company was developing. These statements destroyed consumer demand for the Osborne 1, and the resulting inventory glut forced Osborne Computer to file for bankruptcy on 13 September 1983. This phenomenon, a pre-announcement of a new product causing a catastrophic collapse in demand for older ones, became known as the [[Osborne effect]], but according to some new sources, the real reasons for Osborne Computer's bankruptcy were management errors<ref>{{cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050618022709/https://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050616.html |archive-date=18 June 2005| url=https://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050616.html |title=I, Cringely - The Osborne Effect |website=[[PBS]] }}</ref> and insufficient cash flow.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://technologizer.com/2011/04/01/osborne-computer/4/ |website=Technologizer |title=Osborne! |date=1 April 2011 |last=McCracken |first=Harry}}</ref>

===Hypergrowth===
After Osborne Computer's collapse, Adam Osborne wrote a best-selling memoir of his experience, ''Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer Corporation'', with [[John C. Dvorak]], which was published in 1984.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Osborne |first1=Adam | last2=Dvorak |first2=John C |author-link2=John C. Dvorak| year=1984 |title=Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer Corporation |isbn=978-0-918347-00-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/hypergrowthrisea00osbo |url-access=registration}}.</ref>

== Software ==

In 1984, Osborne founded [[Paperback Software International Ltd.]], a company that specialized in inexpensive computer software. Its advertisements featured Osborne himself, arguing that if telephone companies applied the same logic to their pricing as software companies, a telephone would cost $600. One of its products was VP-Planner, an inexpensive clone of [[Lotus 1-2-3]], which led to [[lawsuit|legal action]] when [[Lotus Software|Lotus]] sued Paperback Software in 1987. As a result of the lawsuit, consumer confidence waned for Paperback Software, and its revenues had dropped 80% by 1989, preventing the firm from getting venture capital for expansion. In February 1990, the case went to court and on 28 June, the court ruled that Paperback Software's product, by copying Lotus 1-2-3's [[look and feel]] menu interface, violated Lotus's [[copyright]].<ref>Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Paperback Software Int'l, 740 F. Supp. 37 (D. Mass. 1990)</ref> Osborne stepped down from Paperback Software the same year.<ref name="independent" /> Paperback's database application, [[VP-Info]] continued to sell well for many more years, and acquired a second life as [[VP-Info#Marketing|Sharkbase]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.intelligentwebware.com/sharkhlp.html |title=Sharkbase/VP-Info User's Manual |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224084311/http://www.intelligentwebware.com/sharkhlp.html |archive-date=24 December 2013 }}</ref>

His final venture, in 1992, was to found the company Noetics Software, to work on [[artificial intelligence]].<ref name="Schofield" />

==Personal life and death==

Osborne was a member of [[Mensa International|Mensa]].<ref name="Schofield" /> He married – and divorced – twice: in the mid-1960s to Cynthia Geddes an American,<ref name="Schofield" /> and later to Barbara Burdick (Zelnick). Osborne had three children.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|first=John |last=Markoff |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=Adam Osborne 64 Dies Was Pioneer of Portable PC |date=26 March 2003|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/business/adam-osborne-64-dies-was-pioneer-of-portable-pc.html |url-access=limited}}</ref> Both former wives and all his children survived him.<ref name="Schofield" />

In 1992, Osborne returned to India in declining health, suffering from a brain disorder that triggered frequent minor strokes. He died in his sleep on 18 March 2003, in [[Kodaikanal]], India, aged 64.<ref name="Schofield" /><ref name="Adam Osborne, pioneer of PCs for people: dead at 64">{{cite web|title=Adam Osborne, pioneer of PCs for people: dead at 64. His sister Katya Douglas (nee Osborne) continues to live in Kodaikanal. |date=March 2003 |publisher=Natural Science |author=Edward Teague |url=http://naturalscience.com/ns/news/news44.html |access-date=20 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326232813/http://www.naturalscience.com/ns/news/news44.html |archive-date=26 March 2009 }}</ref><ref name=nyt />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090326232813/http://www.naturalscience.com/ns/news/news44.html Adam Osborne, pioneer of PCs for people: dead at 64]
* [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/03/25/portable_computer_pioneer_adam_osborne/ The Register – Portable computer pioneer Adam Osborne dies]
* [https://archive.org/details/Computer1984_5 The Computer Chronicles (broadcast in 1984) – Adam Osborne is interviewed by Stewart Cheifet and Gary Kildall]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Adam}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:Computer hardware engineers]]
[[Category:English emigrants to India]]
[[Category:English emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham]]
[[Category:British Hindus]]
[[Category:20th-century British businesspeople]]
[[Category:University of Delaware alumni]]
[[Category:Mensans]]
[[Category:British technology writers]]
[[Category:Osborne Computer Corporation]]

Adam Osborne - Revision history

imported>ShadyCrack: Undid revision 1309720171 by 206.219.162.12 (talk)