Before NINTENDO, Before them other laptops did it, APPLE perfected DOCKED Computing in the 90s+COMMERCIALS for the POWERBOOK DUO series.

With the NINTENDO SWITCH turning 10 years old on MARCH 2027,

I though it was about time to look a specific product that APPLE made that predates not only the SWITCH by almost 25 years but also predates most LAPTOP computers before it:

THE APPLE POWERBOOK DUO

At first, this looks like any POWERBOOK laptop made by APPLE in the 90s....

And it its.....

But that's only the beginning.

Take a look at some commercials I've seen from that era

and

The idea of the POWERBOOK DUO is to have an ALL-IN-ONE computer not in the same vein as an ALL-IN-ONE Computer you set up on your desk like this:

But more like,

You buy a laptop but you feel that you need a DESKTOP but back in the 90s, it was considered very expensive to have both a DESKTOP and a LAPTOP due to the high price of RAM in those days.

So the solution was to provide a specialized DOCKING STATION that you can use your laptop with whenever the need for DESKTOP work feels right.

Some are just stations that accept the use of expansion cards and higher watt power but still let you use the laptop's screen and keyboard.

While others take it a step further and turn the laptop into a full on DESKTOP with it's own 

MONITOR, MOUSE, KEYBOARD, etc.

The POWERBOOK DUO is no exception.

APPLE knew in the 90s that there were those who'd want the convenience of both a laptop and and desktop but don't want to deal with financial sacrifices or buyers remorse so they sold the laptop and the docks to make the marriage all the more easier.

And yes, even JERRY SEINFELD loves all the benefits that the POWERBOOK DUO offers

Though it was weird to many viewers of SEINFELD to see this box of WINDOWS 95 on JERRY's desk here

DOUBLY SO since the POWERBOOK DUO that JERRY SEINFELD had does not support the DOS COMPATIBILTY PDS Card that allowed the use of MS-DOS(and WINDOWS) to be used on a MACINTOSH of the era.

Yes... There did exist a MACINTOSH that could run WINDOWS.

And it did that with a PDS SLOT CARD 

long before BOOTCAMP or PARELLELS DESKTOP were cool.

I did a Blogpost about that a few days ago:

The POWER MACINTOSH released in 1994 that could do more than just be a MACINTOSH: The Power Macintosh 6100 DOS Compatible Computer that ran PC software long before the age of BOOTCAMP