Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting
Otrona 2001
The Otrona 2001 is a cool and rare vintage computer from 1984. Posted by Cerb-r-us.
Published September 2, 2022
Thanks to a post by Cerb-r-us I discovered the short-lived Otrona Corporation, and their second major product, the Otrona 2001.
Based in Boulder, Colorado, the Otrona Corporation manufactured these luggable computers from 1981 to 1984.
The Otrona 2001 was an IBM PC compatible model. Lighter – which is a surprisingly important factor with these hefty luggables –, and was meant to be a superior alternative to similar products made by IBM and Compaq.
If you've seen my 2021 cake day inventory photo, you know I own some of these early luggables and terminals from the same period, and I was quite into this topic a few years ago.
That said, the Otrona 2001 stands out with its futuristic dark grey/amber color scheme and the relatively large pivoting CRT (twice the resolution of standard PCs).
On a side note, the IBM 5155 Portable weights 13.6 kg (30 pounds) but I confess it feels twice as much, probably because of the uneven weight distribution, and also the distressingly thin handle.
I couldn't find the exact parameters of the Otrona 2001, but if the company would have been able to considerably reduce the weight, it could have been a major achievement.
Anyways, they probably couldn't, because just a few months after the introduction of the 2001, the company ceased production and filed for bankruptcy protection.
The 2001 model barely made a mark at all and probably ranks as one of the rarest of the early PC clones.
Published on Fri 2nd Sep 2022. Featured in KBD #93 (source).
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