Apple Disposed of 2,700 Computers in a Landfill Back in 1989
In the annals of tech history, the Apple Lisa stands as a poignant reminder of innovation that failed to capture the market. Launched in 1983, the Lisa was Apple's first foray into the realm of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), boasting a price tag of $9,995 (equivalent to over $30,000 in 2025 dollars). However, a series of factors conspired to render the Lisa a commercial failure, eventually leading to its burial in a landfill in 1989.
The Lisa's astronomical price was its primary downfall. With a cost nearing $10,000 at launch, it was far too expensive for most consumers and businesses. This high price point was exacerbated by technical problems and reliability issues, including frequent overheating due to its compact design, which led to system crashes and made it less reliable than competitors.
The release of the more affordable Macintosh in 1984, priced at $2,495, overshadowed the Lisa. The Macintosh, too, featured a GUI but at a fraction of the Lisa's price, attracting a broader market. The market timing and competition posed by IBM's PC, with its lower price and established ecosystem, further diminished the Lisa's appeal despite its innovations.
Despite introducing the GUI and mouse interface innovations that would later become industry standards, the Lisa's astronomical price, combined with overheating technical flaws, poor market timing, and internal competition from the Macintosh, led to its commercial failure and eventual destruction in a landfill.
In 1989, around 2,700 Lisas were sent to a landfill in Logan, Utah. The decision to destroy these unsold units was likely motivated by a desire to clear expensive inventory, prevent the machines from entering the secondary market and potentially harming Apple’s brand, and symbolize a corporate pivot away from the failed Lisa era.
Steve Jobs, who had initially worked on the Lisa project but was kicked off in 1981, prior to launch, redirected the Macintosh project to make it a GUI-based machine, with the intention of offering it at a far more affordable price-point than the Lisa. This strategic move proved to be a turning point for Apple, as the Macintosh immediately outsold the Lisa and went on to revolutionise the personal computing industry.
The Lisa computer, powered by the Motorola 68000 CPU, was one of the first retail computers to be sold with a GUI, featuring icons, a mouse, and a monochrome monitor with a resolution of 720 x 364. It included twin 5.25-inch double-sided floppy drives, three expansion slots, and a parallel port for adding additional peripherals.
However, the Lisa's implementation issues, including its tendency to run slowly, and the eventual discontinuation of the computer in 1986 after severe price cuts and poor sales, served as a stark reminder of the challenges faced by groundbreaking technology ahead of its time.
Despite the Lisa's failure, its legacy lives on in the innovations it introduced, which laid the foundation for the success of the Macintosh and the personal computing industry as a whole. The landfilling of the Lisas made headlines, with The Herald Journal reporting on the event, but the story of the Apple Lisa serves as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of innovation and the importance of market timing, pricing, and reliability in the tech industry.
References: [1] Apple Lisa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa [2] Apple Lisa. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102697468 [3] Apple Lisa. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102697469 [4] Apple Lisa. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102697470 [5] Apple Lisa. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102697471
The Lisa's steep price, paired with technical issues and poor market timing, caused it to be commercially unsuccessful, leading to its ultimate destruction in a landfill in 1989. In contrast, the Macintosh, introduced a year later, featured a GUI at a more affordable price, catapulting it to success and revolutionizing the personal computing industry.
