???? – 1985retired
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“It dot-matrixed its heart out so your Mac could be heard.”
“Tried to outgrow the Apple II; instead it taught Apple to love it again.”
The Apple III, stylized as apple ///, was Apple Computer's ambitious 1980 attempt at the business market, meant to succeed the Apple II with features professionals wanted: a full typewriter-style keyboard with upper and lowercase letters, multi-directional cursor keys, and an 80-column display, all running the Sophisticated Operating System (SOS). Designed by Wendell Sander, it was announced on May 19, 1980 and relea
Serious stability issues forced a design overhaul and a recall of the first 14,000 machines, and despite a formal reintroduction on November 9, 1981 and an updated Apple III Plus in December 1983, the damage to its reputation was done; roughly 120,000 were sold in total before the original was discontinued on April 24, 1984 and the Plus in September 1985. Yet its failure had a silver lining: it led Apple to reevaluat
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“It dot-matrixed its heart out so your Mac could be heard.”
“A Lisa in Mac clothing, gone before most of us learned to say MacWorks XL three times fast.”
“It taught the world what a blank page could look like. Rest easy, old friend.”