Apple's First Flops

Sabah Arif writes "Apple began the eighties with two major flops under its belt: the Apple III and the LISA. Both machines were attempts at breaking into the business market. They were technologically advanced, but major flaws prevented their success."

want one ...

[siropel]

Where can i get one of those babes? I want to replace my 95 cause it's beginning to be insecure and unstable...
"The press declared the machine and its software revolutionary. In a matter of months, the Macintosh had revolutionized Apple and the computer business" - they revolutionized and other company rules the market ? ...deja vu ...

flops under the belt

[ziggamon2.0]

major flops under its belt

It's ok Steve... it happens to every guy! Maybe you were just nervous!

Look at you now - with your impressive... eh... Mac Mini...

old news

[__aahlyu4518]

"... Apple began the eighties with..."

If this isn't old news.. I don't know what IS.

Re:LISA

[anttik]

I wonder what Ppple III would've been like.

Classic tech support advise!

[Timesprout]

On top of that, Jobs' insistence that the machine have no fan made for a very hot board. After being used for a day or two, the mainboard would get so hot it would warp and unseat some of the chips. Apple refused to install a fan to fix the problem and instructed users to drop the machine on their desk to bang the chips back into place.

Re:Landfilled LISAs

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, they are under 50 feet of E.T. Atari cartridges...

Re:flops under the belt

[Anonymous Coward]

Cue female mac-apologists saying it's "cute".
-r

Hot Product

[ParadoxicalPostulate]

"On top of that, Jobs' insistence that the machine have no fan made for a very hot board."

Why on earth would he object to putting a fan in it? Did he think it'd make too much noise?

My favorite part of the article: "Apple refused to install a fan to fix the problem and instructed users to drop the machine on their desk to bang the chips back into place."

What a concept! Usually when you drop things, they break. But when you drop an Apple, well, it just works (TM).

Quite The Contrary

[Anonymous Coward]

As I recall, Apple was the first to integrate SMALL 3.5" flops (on the Macintosh)

Don't call it a flop ...

[oboylet]

Bring back eWorld [vanvr.com]! It was soooooo cute.

Sorry, I need a minute. Have to run to the bathroom...something in my eye. Just thinking about it gets me all bleary-eyed.

Re:Poor, poor article

[Anonymous Coward]

and gave away machines to personalities including Andy Warhol, who later endorsed the Amiga, and Mick Jagger.

I had to read this sentence a few times to understand why Andy Warhol would endorse Mick Jagger.

That's nothing...

[KDR_11k]

Nowadays companies count in Teraflops.

loooooooooose

[Zorilla]

From article:
By April 1984, Apple had managed to sell only 65,000 units, loosing money on the model.
Geez, Slashdot's power to make people misspell words is so powerful that it's leaking into linked articles!

Re:I call dupe.

[Aldric]

Yes, but it makes the almighty Apple look less than perfect! Won't someone please think of the children??

Re:Larry Tesler was never CEO.

[three333]

It says future Apple CEO - there's still time!

Re:flops under the belt

[Muhammar]

I think he's doing fine - he can say: "We started with just 2 major flops and we are in the teraflop range now"

Re:Some predictions

[utexaspunk]

this is macrumors here after all

uh, dude- this is slashdot. macrumors' site is a lot prettier. it really isn't that hard to distinguish them...

Re:Hmmmm

[JudgeFurious]

The unwashed Windows using masses are too stupid to recognize snobbery, much less understand the experience that makes up the Apple experience. Their simple little conformist minds cannot grasp the complexity that is the Macintosh. They can't see the quality, style, and substance in front of their faces. Fools! You're a fool if you think otherwise.

I have no more time to attempt to enlighten you. I'm going to Starbucks.

Actual Sales Figures

[regen]

By April 1984, Apple had managed to sell only 65,000 units, loosing money on the model.

It turns out according to the Apple sales database they sold exactly 65,535. :)

Re:Sounds reasonable.

[Anonymous Coward]

You are a fucking moron, ahem troll, no a gobshite of a programmer

Re:Sounds reasonable.

[prockcore]

The nice thing about Cocoa is you don't accidentally put a Cocoa call into your cross platform C++ module, because Cocoa requires Objective-C or Objective-C++

Only a mac user can take a shortcoming like the lack of Cocoa C++ bindings and turn it into a feature.