The Atari Portfolio Palmtop

 
        Atari entered into the consumer palmtop market with an innovative product call The Portfolio.   This computer was an IBM XT about the size of VHS video cassette at about 3/4's the height.   It had an PC Card expansion slot (Not PCMCIA compatible, that spec didn't exist formal for a few more years).   It came packages with MS-DOS 2.2 compatibility, Lotus 1-2-3 compatible spreadsheet, a simple text processor, phone book with auto-dialing through a built-in speaker, calendar and todo list.     The Portfolio had a strong following with several companies introducing software cards, hard drives and floppy drives for it.   Atari also had a PC Card drive for IBM computers to allow a user the ability to write to a PC and then remove it from the PC Card Drive connected to a PC and then slide the card into the Portfolio and the system could read the PC Card as a disk drive letter and access all the data.

    In todays market with US Robotics PalmPilots and HP 320LX palmtops which are all the rage, Atari probably could have faired well with an more updated version of their Personal Organizer.   It may have been a matter that Atari introduced an excellent product at the wrong time to a market they may not have been quite ready for it.     The Portfolio is still widely used and still quite popular in many circles with numerous sites supporting it with system updates and software.   Hardware and accessories are still available from several vendors.