A Prototype Macintosh® Portable Computer, APPLE COMPUTER, INC.

APPLE COMPUTER, INC.
A Prototype Macintosh® Portable Computer

A Macintosh® Portable computer with keyboard, trackball
on the left, tilt-up LCD screen marked Macintosh Portable
With: Apple® Computer property pass dated 8/3/90 signed out to
Jerry Goodson, owner's guide, 3.5in. floppy disk marked
Macintosh Portable Update, power supply, case. This lot includes a secondary unit (a normal production unit).
4in. (10.2cm.) x 15.25in. (38.7cm.) x 14.8in. (37.6cm.)

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Lot Essay

This model was Apple®'s first portable Macintosh® and among the first commercial computers to use an active matrix liquid crystal display, which provided greatly improved contrast and reduced response time at substantial cost. This model (although not this specific unit) has the distinction of having been the first commercial portable computer used in space and the first to send email in space (Space Shuttle mission STS-43, 1991).
This item clearly marked as being a pre-production prototype. While the accompanying property pass is dated after the Portable's release (September 1989), the transfer is marked as 'permanent,' suggesting it was used within Apple during the development process and given to the employee after the machine went into production.