Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tokyo Slim 
I'm talking about subcompact or ultraportable computers. Which was the whole point.
I realized while at work today was that this is when things went awry. My point was that the new Mac Book Air is a descendant of the Sony 505G, which debuted a certain form-factor of laptop. You then argued that several other companies made subnotebooks, ignoring the form-factor element I initially referred to. So while I'm saying no one made thin, slim sub-3lbs notebooks with 11" or so displays before Sony, you continued posting examples of subnotebooks that were anything but, arguing a different point. Yes, other companies made subnotebooks - no, none were like the 505G before it debuted. Most everyone moved to emulate it afterwards.
That aside - you're wrong about IBM, possibly because of your screen name's city, indicating you're in (or were in) Japan. The 200-series was sold in Japan about a decade before IBM released one here. In the US, the 500 series was the subnotebook line, the 300 series the mid-range/student line, the 700 series the top line. The 701C was the only 700-series aligned subnotebook, likely just to justify its initial $4500 asking price. Afterwards, IBM reverted to the 500-series name when the Pentium debuted, then moved to the 200-series here with, iirc, the 240 and 240X. Then they revamped the line and started the subnotebook models with Xs (X20, X21, etc).
I may have jumbled the timeline a bit on the 505G debut - I thought I had mine sometime between owning my 701C (which I still have), which debuted in May 1995 (just before Windows 95 and the Pentium-based laptops) and my 560; it might have been after the 560, though. I didn't have one long, being unhappy with the breadth of the "Kite." My last IBM subnotebook was the X31 (hard to find), I think among the last, if not the last, pre-Lenovo models.