Biography Zone

Adam Osborne (6 March 1939-18 March 2003) was a Thailand-born British-American author, book and software publisher and designer team who founded several companies in the United States and other countries.

Adam Osborne was one of the important and influential role in the early history of the manufacture of personal computers (PC). She was born in Thailand in 1939, and spent her childhood in Tamil Nadu, South India, with both parents are British. He moved to England at the age of 11 years. In 1961 he graduated from the University of Birmingham, UK, as a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. After that, he moved to the United States and completed his education at the University of Delaware and earned a doctorate in chemical engineering. Later, he worked at a mining company Shell Oil.

Like most people who are always thinking creatively, Osborne felt uncomfortable in living life as an employee at a large corporation. He did not stay long in Shell and resigned from the company. He then realized that he really enjoys his new job as a guidebook writer, especially about the book that will guide the development of a new computer. In the early 1970s, he got his new job as the author of a manual for Intel's new microprocessor computer company.

Osborne continued job loss as a writer and in 1972 tried to establish Osborne and Associates, a company engaged in the field of writing computer manuals are simple, straightforward, and easy to read for computer enthusiasts. He also wrote a book entitled "The Value of Power", which later changed its title to "An Introduction to Microcomputers". He tried to offer his book to a publisher who was in town. However, unfortunately, the book was rejected. He never gave up. Then, he decided to try to publish his book itself.

In the event of a computer user in a club, he was showing his book to Bruce Van Natta of AMSAI, one of the famous computer company in the U.S.. After reading the book, Van Natta interested and decided to include a book on any computer IMSAI will be sold. With a good start and mutual benefit, as well as the belief that people will seek rollicking guide books about computers that can be easily read and understood, Osborn tried to set up his own publishing company called Osborn Books.

Five years later, Osborne Books publisher has published more than 40 titles of books about computers. Then in 1979, for one thing, Osborne sold his publishing company to McGraw-Hill. At the same time, he began trying to write a column for the magazine Computer Interface Age and Infoworld. He was pretty sure the computer will be really useful if it is a mobile computer (can be taken anywhere) and dynamic with the people who use them, and can be used anytime and anywhere people were. He began to think that someday a computer company that existed at the time would have understood the concepts (ideas) in the head. However, the computer company that is not yet ready with his concepts. Having sold his publishing company, Osborn began diverting energies to designing a portable computer, attractive, easy to use, and powerful.

In March 1980, the show "West Coast Computer Faire", he met with Lee Felsenstein, an expert in designing circuit boards for processor technology. Felsenstein start a business engaged in manufacturing hardware (hardware). Its hardware company that not only manufactures portable computers, but also offers its software.

Felsenstein began interested in following an idea proposed by Osborne, he began designing a portable computer, which can be stored under the seat in an airplane. The computer weighs only 24 pounds, has a display (display) 52 columns that would fit on a 5-inch screen, protective tube, and 2 disk drives. In order to meet the needs of a small display, Felsenstein trying to store information in a single screen memory, and provide convenience to the users when they press the buttons in order to roll up display screen.


Once the hardware is realized, Osborne tried to contact several software providers and make arrangements to provide and CBASIC language BASIC, WordStar word processing and data processing programs SuperCalc on each computer. Sotware-market price of the software is about $ 2,000, which caused Osborne to raise the original price of each unit sold. Osborne began to introduce his new computer, named the Osborne 1, the "West Coast Computer Faire" in April 1981. The computer is a portable computer that software is the first to be obtained at a price of $ 1,795 and is a surprising and promising breakthrough to achieve a successful sale. In September 1981, Osborne Computer cooporation (OCC) scored his first sale of millions of dollars. In fact, Osborne 1 became one of the best-selling PC and many were sold that quickly reach peak sales of approximately 10,000 units per month.

In the second year, the company owned by Osborne achieve sales target of 70 million dollars. It overwhelm its competitors, such as IBM and Apple. It was very aggravated when Osborne announced his new computer, Executive, long before the goods are ready for the market. This makes the consumers stopped buying the Osborne 1 while waiting for a new computer that will be issued. However, unfortunately, in September 1983, without known with certainty, OCC went bankrupt. Because sales are not selaris sales Executive Osborne 1.

In the spring of 1984, Osborne returned to the publishing business. His new firm called Paperback Software International Ltd.. Initially, he attempted to publish an inexpensive software to rival expensive softwares that are available in the market at that time. The first time, the idea was to see success and he was able to take over and attract consumers, especially computer companies in the UK. Osborne's most successful product is a data processing program called VP Planner. Unfortunately, Lotus Development Corporation feels that the program violated patents of their program, Lotus 1-2-3. In 1987, Lotus demand software, and billing software licenses. After going through a long process of trial, the court ultimately decided that the doubling of Lotus 1-2-3 menu interface of the software violated the patent.

However, Adam Osborne is an inventor of genius on how to make a portable computer that gives easiness for computer users. No doubt, brilliant ideas will be very useful for people who use computers today. Adam Osborne died in Kodiakanal, southern India, on March 25, 2003 after a prolonged illness on the brain. ***

(Yayan Sofyan Suri, Alumni Faculty IPB Bogor, from various sources) ***