This Day in History

January 19, 1983

Apple Computer Introduces the Lisa

Apple began developing the Lisa computer in 1978. It was to feature a graphical user interface (GUI) and use the Motorola 68000 CPU. It was also the first Apple product with an internal hard drive. Steve Jobs, head of the project until he was taken off it in 1982, initially claimed LISA stood for Local Integrated System Architecture, though later admitted it was named for his daughter, Lisa Nicole Brennan. The Lisa sold for ten thousand dollars, which along with poor third party software availability and incompatibility with the Apple II, led to weak sales. In 1985, the Lisa was rebranded the Macintosh XL at less than half the cost of the original Lisa. Despite increased sales, the Mac XL was discontinued later in 1986, bringing an end to the Lisa story.