Re: What killed the Apple III

[skadesh@mv.us.adobe.com (Seth Kadesh)]

In article <mjensen2.187.0@wpo.uwsuper.edu> mjensen2@wpo.uwsuper.edu (MATTHEW L. JENSEN) writes:
>In article <3bffmp$kmg@solaris-2.Armstrong.EDU> bobm@solaris-2.Armstrong.EDU (Bob Matthews) writes:
>>	I assume they don't mean that nearly 100% failed to work!  What
>>(or who) killed the Apple III?  Was it the introduction of the 
>>PC?  A wretched design?
>
>I think it was a combination of the future developments of the Apple IIe and 
>Lisa that killed the III. The Apple III had very few advantages over the 
>IIE, and apple's muscles got behind the lisa/mac projects at around that 
>time. (The III was discontinued in 1984, right?)
>
>Don't rely on my information, though.  It's all vague recollection from 
>magazine articles I've read over time.   Plus, I was only 8 in 1984 so I 
>didn't pay much attention to the demise of the Apple III...

There were two varieties of the Apple III.  The original model suffered from
a poor case design, and had a tendency to overheat.

[This was Jobs' fault - he didn't like fans in computers, and felt that this
lack could be compensated for by "well-placed" vents in the case.]

The Apple III had enough chips on the motherboard (packed close together)
that the generated heat was enough to cause failures.  I want to say that
some chips physically popped out of their sockets, but I don't have any
references in front of me.  I think the floppy drive also had problems, due
to the fact that it was built in.

The Apple III+ fixed all of these problems.  Unfortunately, the III+ was
introduced too late, and the damage (to the respectability of the III model)
had already been done.

I don't remember the timeline, so the development of the IIe, and the work
on the LISA, may have contributed to the death of the Apple III.

But the Apple III was the first failure for the company, in terms of design,
and possibly the way Apple responded (or didn't respond) to the problems.

-seth
skadesh@adobe.com