A man bought thousands of computers from Apple to upgrade them. But in the end, the plans failed and Apple destroyed the remaining units that were left. Thus, a piece of computer history disappeared 30 years ago on a landfill in Utah.
What kind of computers are we talking about? The Apple Lisa was the first computer to offer a graphical interface and a real PC mouse in 1983, but it was a financial disaster for Apple. This was mainly due to the high selling price of $9,995 for such a device. Adjusted for inflation, that would roughly be about 24,600 Euros today (via in2013dollars).
This is where Bob Cook comes into play. Cook became enthusiastic about the failed Apple computer and bought thousands of the old computers. It is said that there were a total of 7,000 units, which he supposedly bought for a bargain price. Cook acquired the devices to resell them, as Apple no longer wanted to handle the sale after discontinuing the Lisa in 1985.
Developer upgrades old computers from Apple, but Apple doesn’t like the ambitious plans
Here was Cook’s plan: Bob Cook aimed to give the old devices a second chance with his company “Sun Remarketing, Inc.”: He invested $200,000 in research and development to turn this faulty device into something they called “Lisa Professional”. A completely improved version of the old device that was supposed to compete with the new Macintosh. The investment mainly focused on an emulator named “MacWorks Plus” and on MacWorks XL to support older software.
Apple writes off the remaining devices: In September 1989, Apple demanded the return of the remaining stock from Bob Cook. A legal process began, but Cook did not want to confront the lawyers in Cupertino. Specifically, this was probably about a clause in the sales contract that gave Apple the right to reclaim the unsold devices. According to various reports (such as via webarchive.com), this involved about 2,700 units that were still left.
Moreover, Apple is said to have received about $34 as a tax benefit for every $100 in written-off value. Given the almost $10,000 selling price, that must have been quite a lot. This was reported by the English magazine TheVerge, which refers to an old newspaper article in a report.
What happened to the computers in the end? Ultimately, the computers ended up on a landfill in Logan, Utah, crushed and buried. A team from TheVerge visited the landfill in Utah a few years ago, only to find that the computers could no longer be salvaged. By now they are buried meters deep under years of trash.
In the movie Forrest Gump, the Lisa
from Apple is shown, 8 years before its actual release. The special thing about the film is also that Apple didn’t even exist at the time when the new product was presented in the film: In one of the best movies of all time, Tom Hanks gets information about a product from Apple that will only be released 8 years later
