The first laptop was made in 1982 Enclosed in a magnesium case, it introduced the now familiar clamshell design, in which the flat display folded shut against the keyboard.

When did laptops become widely used?

In the US, laptops first outsold desktops in the retail market for a full month in May 2005, according to the research firm Current Analysis. NPD Group, which looked at revenue rather than units, saw the crossover happen two years earlier, in May 2003.

What year was the first laptop?

Via Old Picture Of The Day, here's the Osborne 1, which was released in 1981. It weighed ~25 pounds, had a 5-inch screen, and cost $1,800. Technically, this was the first "portable" computer. It wasn't until a couple of years later that the term "laptop" was actually used.