Apple III

E77069

The Apple III was a business-oriented personal computer released by Apple in 1980 as the intended successor to the Apple II series, known for its advanced features but also for significant reliability issues.

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Observed surface forms (4)

Surface form Occurrences
Apple III Business BASIC 1
Apple III Plus 1
Apple III computer 1

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf business computer
personal computer
announcedAt National Computer Conference 1980
architecture 8-bit
caseType desktop
codename Sara
commercialPerformance poor
compatibleWith most Apple II software (via emulation mode)
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
cpu MOS Technology 6502
surface form: Synertek 6502A
cpuClockSpeed 2 MHz
designIssue chips could come loose from sockets due to heat
lack of cooling fan
developer Apple Inc.
surface form: Apple Computer, Inc.
discontinued April 1984
floppyDriveType Apple Disk III 5.25-inch drive
graphicsMode text and low-resolution graphics similar to Apple II Plus
hasNumericKeypad yes
includesLowercaseSupport yes
integratedFeatures 80-column text hardware
built-in floppy drive
numeric keypad
intendedSuccessorOf Apple II
surface form: Apple II series
introductionYear 1980
keyboard built-in full-stroke keyboard
manufacturer Apple Inc.
surface form: Apple Computer, Inc.
market business
maxRam 512 KB
notableFor advanced business-oriented features compared to Apple II
overheating issues
significant reliability problems
operatingSystem Apple III self-linksurface differs
surface form: Apple III Business BASIC

Apple SOS
platform Apple III self-linksurface differs
surface form: Apple III platform
predecessor Apple II
surface form: Apple II Plus
priceAtLaunch around US$4,340 (base configuration)
primaryStorage built-in 5.25-inch floppy disk drive
ram 128 KB
256 KB (expandable)
releaseDate May 1980
reliabilityIssues frequent hardware failures in early units
rom 4 KB
successor Apple III self-linksurface differs
surface form: Apple III Plus
targetUsers professional users
small business users
textDisplay 24-line display
80-column text
unitsSold approximately 65,000
wordSize 8-bit

Referenced by (6)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Daniel Kottke notableWork Apple III
Apple III operatingSystem Apple III self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Apple III Business BASIC
Apple III platform Apple III self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Apple III platform
Apple Lisa predecessor Apple III
Apple III successor Apple III self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Apple III Plus
Daniel Kottke workedOn Apple III
this entity surface form: Apple III computer