The Lisa personal computer was unveiled by Apple Computer on this day in 1983.
Lisa is one of the first PCs to employ a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse, two innovative features at the time. However, its impossibly high starting price of $10,000 ensured its downfall.
Lisa initially intended to stand for Local Integrated Software Architecture. But, Steve Jobs ultimately acknowledged he named it after his daughter Lisa Nicole Brennan, as detailed in her biography Small Fry.
Sequence of Events
In 1978, Apple began building the computer with the Apple II's triumph still fresh. However, competition in the personal computer industry was also heating up.
Steve Jobs saw the increasing competition and realized Apple needed to release a groundbreaking PC for the people as soon as possible.
In 1979, Jobs made a deal with Xerox officials, swapping $1 million in Apple shares for an exclusive preview and presentation of the Alto computer, which was then Xerox's crown jewel and utterly unknown to the outside world.
The Alto pioneered a GUI, complete with colorful desktop icons, folders, program windows, and a mouse for navigating the interface. The Alto's engine bay was open for inspection by Apple's engineers.
For Jobs, it proved to be a rich vein of opportunity.
In 1983, on January 19th, Apple released the Lisa computer, which included the company's first GPU, document-oriented workflow, program windows, and mouse.
According to Ars Technica, the Lisa was equipped with its own operating system, as well as a "suite" of seven programs.
It had the word processor LisaWrite; the spreadsheet LisaCalc; a vector drawing program called LisaDraw; the primitive database LisaList; project management software LisaProject; a terminal emulator that could be used with a modem named LisaTerminal; and graphing program LisaGraph.
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Anticipated Flop
This is what went wrong for Lisa to be deemed unsuccessful.
These incredible pieces of cutting-edge technology and pieces of software did not come cheap, though.
Despite being one of the most powerful commercial computers at launch with a mouse and GUI, sales were dismal due to a combination of subpar third-party software and an enormous price tag of $10,000. That price is nearly $25,000 today.
Lisa's target market consists of business owners. They could be willing to pay this price provided the computer meets their requirements, which include handling numerous users connected through inexpensive text-based terminals and running tedious accountancy software.
After just a few short years, production of the Lisa was halted. About 2,700 unsold computers were dumped in a Utah landfill.
Even though Lisa is sometimes overlooked in favor of the Apple II and Macintosh, the technologies that were originally designed for Lisa ultimately led the path to Apple's future success.
Lisa's whole original source code is available for download here.
