April 15, 1981: Apple CEO Mike Markkula defends the struggling Apple III with a surprisingly simple admission, whilst the corporate pushes an unorthodox “repair” for the pc’s {hardware} drawback.
“It might be dishonest for me to take a seat right here and say that it’s excellent,” he tells The Wall Avenue Journal, after critics blast the Apple II’s doomed successor for its overheating motherboard. Apple’s official resolution to the issue? Ask customers to drop their Apple III from a peak of 6 inches, thereby hopefully reseating the chips.
Apple III: Apple’s first flop
Apple launched the troubled Apple III, which might turn into Cupertino’s first official flop, in Could 1980. On paper, it ought to have been an enormous success. For the primary time, this wasn’t a pc singlehandedly constructed on nearly no funds by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. As a substitute, it was the work of a committee of proficient engineers working for a well-funded firm.
Sadly, this meant the pc suffered from a confused id. Everybody harbored their very own concepts about what it ought to do. The consequence: “function creep,” and a undertaking that took longer than it ought to have.
From Apple’s perspective, one of many imperatives of the Apple III was that it ought to be a enterprise pc. Though gross sales of the Apple II confirmed no indicators of slowing down, and the Macintosh undertaking was simply getting began, Apple needed a pc that may enchantment to firms. The IBM PC was already closely rumored, and Apple needed to assemble a machine that would shoot it down.
The unique Apple III boasted a 2 MHz SynerTek 6502A processor, 2KB of ROM, 128KB on-board RAM and 4 slots for peripherals. It ran twice as quick because the Apple II and was Apple’s first pc to come back with a built-in 5.25-inch floppy drive.
The pc may emulate the Apple II, however got here with its personal Subtle Working System. Cupertino pronounced it “soss” (like “Apple sauce”). As a substitute, folks referred to it as “S.O.S.” when the total scale of the Apple III catastrophe grew to become obvious.
Huge issues from Day 1
Picture: Apple
A couple of large issues accompanied the Apple III rollout. Manufacturing delays meant that quantity shipments of the pc didn’t start till March 1981.
The worth, which ranged from $4,340 to $7,800, proved one other sticking level. By current requirements, a totally kitted-out mannequin value $25,900, adjusted for inflation.
Apple III’s motherboard overheats
The motherboard drawback took the cake, although.
Steve Jobs insisted that the pc not function a cooling fan. He additionally dictated the Apple III’s dimension and form, with out concern for what this could imply for electrical engineers. This resulted within the overheating motherboard, and Apple’s “simply drop your pc” workaround.
Apple did do greater than this to try to make good, nevertheless. It promised to swap out unhealthy Apple III fashions for brand new ones, no questions requested. It later launched an upgraded Apple III, which arrived in December 1981.
Sadly, by that time, it was too little too late. By the top of 1983, months earlier than the Macintosh 128K launched, Apple had offered solely 75,000 Apple III items.
To place that quantity in context, the Apple II — which the Apple III was designed to interchange — offered near that quantity each month.
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