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Apple III computer set, with an Apple Monitor III and an Apple Disk III drive. The computer's underside bears an affixed Apple Computer label checked “256K” with serial number "A3S2-113365,” and the backside features an on/off switch and various ports for power supply, printer interface, floppy disk drive, and monitor outputs. Apple III features include an 80-column, 24-line display with upper and lowercase characters, a numeric keypad, dual-speed (pressure-sensitive) cursor control keys, 6-bit (DAC) audio, and a built-in 140-kilobyte 5.25-inch floppy disk drive. The backs of the monitor (Model No. A3M0039, Serial No. Y1L 018898) and Disk III (Serial No. A3M0004-06337) all bear their original Apple parts labels. Wires and cables included, as are various floppy disks for installation and software like Visicalc and Apple Writer, and Apple III manuals, such as Owner’s Guide, Standard Device Drivers Manual, The Applesoft Tutorial, and PFS: Report User’s Manual. In overall good to very good condition, with the computer missing its space bar, hyphen-minus, and "6" keys; and the corner broken off of the top of the case. The monitor bears scattered marks and scuffs, and two small tears to the screen cover. The Apple Disk III drive is not in working order.
Released with a whopping price tag orbiting $5000, the business-oriented Apple III computer, equipped with the Apple SOS operating system, seemed predestined to fail. Designed to succeed the Apple II series, the Apple III suffered from stability issues shortly after its November 1980 release, leading to the recall of the first 14,000 machines. The bugs were fixed, but the computer’s reputation was not. The Apple III was discontinued on April 24, 1984, and its last successor, the III Plus, was dropped from the Apple product line in September 1985. Apple co-founder 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.
