This day, January 19, 1983, the Apple Lisa was unveiled. It forever changed the way computer actions were accomplished, as it was the first computer to include a graphical user interface, and a “mouse” which could be used to direct a virtual “pointer” on the screen. Apple stated that the name “Lisa” was an acronym for Local Integrated Software Architecture, but it is more commonly inferred that this acronym was created to conform to the name of Steve Jobs’ daughter, Lisa. To this time, all computer actions were accomplished through often complex commands typed into a keyboard.
This computer no less than completely changed the way individuals interact with computers. From a Feb. 7, 1983 Fortune magazine review by Peter Nulty:
“Lisa’s most distinguishing feature … is the massive programming Apple engineers have stored in her memory. To operate even the simplest personal computers today, a user must learn a myriad of arcane commands and procedures. The industry calls this computer literacy. Apple engineers have taught Lisa to be people literate.
“Lisa takes orders primarily from a mouse, not a keyboard. The mouse is a cigarette-pack-size plastic box with a button on top and a cable connected to the computer. When the mouse is moved on the surface of a desk, an arrow moves on Lisa’s TV-like monitor screen. This permits the user to juggle words or statistics around in much the same way that a child uses a joystick to manipulate spaceships in a video game. Lisa also has a standard keyboard, but the operator has to use that only to type in text or statistics.”
Nulty summed up his review by calling the Lisa “… exceedingly user friendly, if not outright seductive” in that it transformed the tedious activity of creating office reports into something close to playing a video game. It was also a highly “democratic” machine, because this deceptively simple system, as Nulty continues, “… should save computer neophytes days, or even weeks, in learning to use the machine.” Aside from the increased storage and additional applications the computer offered, it was, to that time, the easiest computer to use ever designed. Also, it was the Lisa, along with the Macintosh, that solidified Apple’s superiority in in the field of graphic design.
Apple introduced the Lisa at $9,995, which included its software applications: LisaWrite, LisaDraw, LisaProfile, LisaCalc, LisaGraph, and COBOL. It was designed primarily for the office environment.
– Christopher Hartman
