Steve Jobs worked during the brand’s early years on the potential of the personal computer. This goal was achieved with the Apple Lisa and later Macintoshes. But little is known about the details of this transition from one type of computer to another. A new documentary prepared by The Verge team clarifies certain things, especially those that have remained buried.
Actually There are a bunch of Apple Lisa units buried in a landfill. Since many years. And this fact is not the product of a I will be by Steve Jobs: There are others involved in what was an attempt to resurrect this once repudiated computer by Apple’s co-founder.
“One man’s trash may be another man’s treasure.”
The documentary, viewable for free on YouTube and lasting barely half an hour, delves into a little-known story. And it shows how Jobs abruptly parked his Lisa, tempting the market with something that was going to be even better: the first Macintosh
But we’ve already told this story in detail: equipment rehabilitation expert Bob Cook wanted to give them a second life. This salesman specializing in Apple was looking for business at Lisa’s seeing that things were not going very well. It started buy all the Apple IIIs that Apple had left in its warehouses after the company stopped selling them. Bob sold them for a good price because they were old models, and Apple let him pay for them month by month. There were about 3,500 computers, no less.
The strategy worked out well, so Apple contacted Bob again to help them “get rid of” the 7,000 units of Lisa they had accumulated in their warehouses once Steve Jobs stopped promoting it . Here there were more problems: several units were missing components and there were breakdowns in others, so the sales strategy had to be much more refined than with the Apple III.
Bob installed an alternative operating system that emulated that of the Macintosh, and provided the Lisa with more expansion options so that it gained some traction in the market at that time. He spent over $200,000 on this initiative, but once again, the operation went well. For its part, Apple was happy that Lisa users continued to receive support, even if it was not official.
“Lisa’s Second Death”
But everything changed in 1989. Suddenly, Apple wanted Bob to return all the Lisas. No one could face the powerful legal team of those from Cupertino, so quickly a truck arrived and started taking away all the units of these Lisa. To where? To the Logan City landfill, where they were buried.
Landfill workers were so surprised to “destroy thousands of computers” that they even called the press. Bob and his partners went to the dump to see what was going on and saw all the computers thrown into a hole. There were even agents hired by Apple to keep everything as discreet as possible. For Bob, it was the day of Lisa’s second death
Apple declined to comment to The Verge on the matter. However, press reports at the time included statements in which the company claimed it was simply “better at the company levelFor Bob, either Apple just wanted to get rid of a computer and ended up viewing it as a failure, or there were just good tax deductions if he got rid of the computers.
I don’t think we know more, but it’s still interesting: Someone trusted the Lisas more than Steve Jobs himself, and thanks to that they had a second life. In short, before Apple decides to delete everything at all costs.
An older version of this article was originally published on 05/31/2023.
Cover | Personal montage based on a photograph by Gerhard »GeWalt« Walter under Wikipedia license.
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