July 30, 1979: Apple engineers begin work on the Lisa computer, the company’s first machine to come with a graphical user interface and mouse.
Incorporating technology that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs saw at Xerox PARC, the Lisa looks like a surefire hit. Things don’t turn out exactly like that, however.
The Lisa project: Apple’s first attempt at a business computer
The Lisa project began as Apple’s attempt to build a better business computer, but it ended up reinventing personal computing instead. The ambitious effort introduced the graphical user interface and mouse to Apple’s roadmap, even as soaring costs, internal power struggles and Steve Jobs‘ dramatic removal from the team turned it into one of Silicon Valley’s most consequential flops.
While the Lisa itself failed in the marketplace, the ideas it pioneered became the blueprint for the Macintosh computer — and ultimately every modern Mac, iPhone and iPad that followed.
The roots of the Lisa project go back slightly further than Jobs’ visit to Xerox PARC, which took place in 1979. Apple originally planned to develop a business computer as a more serious alternative to the Apple II.
In July 1979, Apple installed Ken Rothmghhuller as project manager for the Lisa. At the time, the company hoped to release the finished computer in March 1981. The original Lisa plans, however, looked nothing like the computer Cupertino wound up shipping.
Apple initially imagined a more traditional user interface. This changed when Jobs saw the in-development graphical user interface at Xerox’s research lab in Silicon Valley. (Jobs got his peek behind the curtain in exchange for allowing Xerox to invest $1 million ahead of Apple’s IPO.)
Armed with inspiration from Xerox, Jobs set about reimagining the Lisa project as the world’s first mainstream commercial computer to come with a GUI and mouse.
A high-profile Apple flop
Despite this innovation, Apple’s Lisa project failed. Rothmuller complained that suggested new features would push the computer way past its original price. Apple aimed at a target of $2,000, the equivalent of more than $9,100 today. Apple fired Rothmuller from the project when he voiced his concerns.
Even more notable was the departure of Jobs, who got booted off the Lisa team in September 1980 for being difficult to work with. He wound up joining another skunkworks project at Apple, developing what turned out to be the first Macintosh.
The Apple Lisa ultimately launched in January 1983. Apple charged $9,995, the equivalent of more than $33,500 today. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the computer flopped in the marketplace, despite this wonderful advertisment featuring a pre-fame Kevin Costner as a proud Lisa owner:
The Apple Lisa: A computer by any other name…
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple canceled the Lisa product line in 1986. For many Apple fans, the best-remembered anecdote about the Lisa concerns its name. Lisa was also the name of Jobs’ daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, whose paternity he shamefully denied at the time.
Because he was in the middle of a lawsuit, Jobs claimed that “Lisa” stood for “Local Integrated System Architecture.” Some Apple engineers joked that it should stand for “Let’s Invent Some Acronym” instead. Eventually, Jobs admitted that the computer was named after his firstborn child. In Jobs’ official biography, he told Walter Isaacson, “Obviously it was named for my daughter.”
Here in the 21st century, only 30 to 100 of the original Lisa computers still exist. They go for good money at auction.
Do you own an Apple Lisa computer? Have you ever seen one in action? Let us know in the comments below.
