Adam Osborne

Adam Osborne, who co-founded a company that pioneered portable computers but met the same fate of countless future Silicon Valley firms that grew too quickly, has died. He was 64.

Mr. Osborne died March 18 in Kodiakanal, India, after a series of strokes caused by a brain disorder, his first wife, Cynthia Geddes, said.

Geddes said Mr. Osborne came up with the concept of a portable computer that he began selling in 1981 the same year International Business Machines Corp. unveiled its personal desktop computer.

At the time, Mr. Osborne targeted the young Apple Computer Inc., which in the 1970s started selling computers that fit onto office and home desktops.

Osborne Computer Corp. became the fastest-growing Silicon Valley company shortly after the launch of the 24-pound, $1,795 Osborne 1. At its peak, the model sold at a rate of 10,000 a month.

But two years later, the company made a misstep that would plague many future firms. The Osborne 1 ' s successor dubbed Executive was announced months before it was ready, causing shipments of the existing machine to plummet.

Company co-founder Lee Felsenstein said while Mr. Osborne had the ideas to create the company, he did not have the experience to run it after it matured.

" He wasn ' t a professional manager, " Felsenstein said. " He sort of found out the hard way you really needed to be one to make it go. "

Though Osborne Computer did not survive, the idea of a portable computer did. Compaq Computer Corp. successfully introduced an IBM-compatible portable in 1982.

After the demise of his company, Mr. Osborne started Paperback Software International Ltd., which sold low-cost programs that mimicked higher-end software. But Lotus Development Corp. sued in 1987, alleging a Paperback product was too close to its 1-2-3 spreadsheet.

Lotus won the case in 1990.

After leaving Paperback, Mr. Osborne sought funding for start-ups in India.