I concur that it's reasonable to credit Grid in general, and Moggridge specifically, with starting the clamshell trend in portable computers which became ubiquitous by the end of the 1980s.
But it's wrong to call the Compass a laptop. A laptop, by definition, runs on its own power, allowing the owner to use it anywhere. Let's not forget that the Compass had to be plugged into the wall.
This is not mere semantics. The Compass in shape is the first of its kind, but in tethering its user to a wall is just a smaller/lighter version of a suitcase computer.
It wasn't until the 1983-1984 generation -- such as Gavilan, HP-110, Sharp PC-5000, and Tandy 200 -- that clamshell-shaped * laptops * became available, running on batteries.
- Evan
