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In my quest to try and collect 'everything' IBM made which was portable, we have this strange curiosity - the IBM On-Line Note - model 5499-002. It's most notable 'claim to fame' is the fact one article from 1989 called this IBM's 'first' notebook computer - as in their first notebook-format computer WITH a battery. There was an earlier portable form factor machine called the 5535M (which was also developed by Ricoh but was completely different, bigger and looked a bit like an evolution of the IBM Convertible) - but that definitely wasn't notebook-sized and it didn't have a battery.
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It's obvious that by the late 1980s, IBM had a lot of resources on how to enter the portable market invented by IBM-cloner Compaq with the Compaq Portable I. This was a huge luggable 5155 PC in a suitcase, with a CRT screen built-in.
Besides the 5155, IBM developed the vaguely portable IBM Convertible and the P70/75 computers. But these had to sit on a table or desk and none were portable enough to run on batteries or be used on a plane.
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N33 comes from the 8533 model type.
Note: this article is about the 16Mhz 386 model which was a direct relation to the Japan-only second-generation PS/55 Note - the N23 SX, minus the built-in floppy drive. It also had a Western keyboard and built-in external video display. The 12Mhz model without external video is completely different inside, made up of two main boards of equal size, whereas the 16Mhz model is one large board. The single planar motherboard is codenamed EXCEL-MAIN
The N33 machines are successors to the original note and N23 SX Japanese machines and is a precursor to the N51 and C23V Notes - which eventually became the C52 Thinkpad 700C.
