7013

Apple Lisa Computer

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:80,000.00 - 90,000.00 USD
Apple Lisa Computer

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2021 Aug 19 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Rare Apple Lisa desktop computer from the personal collection of Apple software pioneer Roger Wagner, representing an innovative step in the transition between the Apple I and II and the Macintosh. It was one of the first personal computers to present a graphical user interface (GUI), and is remembered for its high price and lack of sales. This example, with Apple label reading "Serial No: B08B831330328, Applenet No: 00103473, Manufactured: 83133," features the original-configuration 'Twiggy' floppy drives (plus uninstalled Lisa 2 upgrade kit), and includes all peripherals and accessories required for operation: an original Apple keyboard and mouse, three external Apple ProFile hard drives, nine boxes of software (LisaCalc, LisaDraw, LisaList, LisaGraph, LisaWrite, LisaProject, and Pascal), and Lisa Owner's Guide. Also includes the original Apple shipping box.

Development of the Lisa project began in 1978, aimed at individual business users. Officially, "Lisa" stood for 'Local Integrated Software Architecture,' but it was also the name of Steve Jobs' daughter. The Lisa was first introduced in January 1983 at a cost of $9,995, as one of the first commercial personal computers to have a GUI and a mouse. This initial, original model of Lisa computer features the dual, custom, 5 1/4" 'Twiggy' drives. These floppy drives, designed in-house at Apple, were innovative—featuring a high capacity, variable spindle speed, and were double-sided. The Lisa had initially been designed with the idea of running its operating system entirely from these disks. But due to the lack of speed, and the increasing needs of the operating system, the Lisa shipped with an external 5MB ProFile hard drive. The Twiggy drives, with their unique custom diskettes, high manufacture cost, and field unreliability, were soon replaced by Apple with a free upgrade to the later "Lisa 2" machine, which replaced disk drives with a single 3 1/2" Sony drive, and a new faceplate to accommodate it. As this was offered to customers at no charge, and Apple required the return of the original disk drives and faceplate, it is incredibly rare to find a surviving machine with the original Twiggy drives.

The Lisa did not do well in the marketplace. A large part of this was its hefty price tag, another the relative lack of available software. The machine was also perhaps too much of a radical change in computing environments, offering the graphical interface and the mouse to consumers for the first time. The Lisa was also fairly slow, and this was reflected in the user experience with the operating system. The Lisa did offer a vast array of advanced features, from multitasking to soft power, that took years to make it into other platforms. The Macintosh, released just a year later in 1984 inherited much of the graphical functionality, and the mouse from the Lisa—but did so at a far lower cost, and it was faster as well.

Apple attempted to market and sell the Lisa alongside the Macintosh—eventually releasing a modification kit to allow the Lisa hardware to run Macintosh software, and sold a so-modified machine as the Macintosh XL. This had the distinct advantage of having a larger screen and a lot more memory, but was somewhat slower than an actual Macintosh due to the lower processor clock speed.

Ultimately, Lisa never found commercial success, and sold only 10,000 units before being discontinued in 1985. On top of not selling well, many were subsequently traded in to Apple for a substantial discount on the Macintosh Plus—another factor in the rarity of the Lisa today. A rare, desirable example of a famed Apple product.