Innovation Gallery

Introduced in 1982, the 10-inch by 5-inch by 1-inch HP-75C was HP's first handheld computer. With 48K ROM and 16K RAM, the HP-75C ran BASIC and VisiCalc and could be used as a clock and appointment alarm. It cost $995.

Weighing only 26 ounces, the HP-75 provided 50 functions. It was an early tool for mobile computing. A repository for field data that eventually would be transmitted into a host computer, it accommodated peripherals such as a modem, a digital cassette drive and printer/plotter, all of which could fit easily into a briefcase. It was aimed at more technical users than the HP-110 laptop was.