Apple III

The Apple III (stylized as apple ///) is a business-oriented personal computer that was produced by Apple Computer and released in 1980. It was intended as the successor to the Apple II with features business users wanted—a full typewriter-style keyboard with upper and lowercase letters, multi-directional cursor keys and an 80-column display—but it failed in the market. It uses Apple's proprietary Sophisticated Operating System (SOS). Designed by Wendell Sander, the Apple III was announced on May 19, 1980, and released in late November that year. Serious stability issues required a design overhaul and a recall of the first 14,000 machines produced. It was formally reintroduced on November 9, 1981, but damage to the computer's reputation had already been done. An updated version was released in December 1983 as the Apple III Plus. An estimated 65,000 to 75,000 Apple III computers were sold. The Apple III Plus brought this up to approximately 120,000. The original model was discontinued on April 24, 1984, and the Plus in September 1985. The III's failure led Apple to reevaluate its plan to phase out the Apple II, and later Apple II models incorporate some technologies of the Apple III. Steve Wozniak stated that the primary reason for the Apple III's failure was that the system was designed by Apple's marketing department, unlike Apple's previous engineering-driven projects.