Sony's Secret Masterpiece

The Creation of Apple's First Truly Portable Computer

It looked unassuming. Slim, dark, compact. No tie to the beige boxes that came before it. Just a granite-gray rectangle, small enough to slip into a briefcase, light enough to carry without thinking, and modern enough to feel like it came from somewhere ahead of schedule. The machine had Apple’s name on it. But it wasn’t really Apple’s machine.

It was Sony’s.

In 1990, Sony wasn’t in the business of building computers for other companies. Not yet. But Norio Ohga, then president of the company, believed in expanding the brand’s footprint in digital technology. When Apple came knocking in late 1989, asking for help shrinking down the architecture of the Macintosh Portable into something truly portable, Ohga didn’t hesitate. He assigned one of his best engineers, Kihey Yamamoto, to lead the effort. Yamamoto was given full access to any division inside Sony. He could borrow hardware specialists from the video group, battery designers from the Walkman team, display experts from the Trinitron…