The Truth About Cars has a great blog post comparing the frenzy behind Apple's infamous "Lisa" computer and the Chevy Volt: "GM's Apple moment: Could it already be time to dump the Volt?"
In retrospect, it seems obvious that a $9,995 computer wasn't going to set the world on fire, particularly in an era when a new Oldsmobile Cutlass cost less than that, but Apple had become a navel-gazing maze of slightly insane people who had been isolated from the real world by a tidal wave of cash, success, and public acclaim. The Lisa arrived with a bang but barely sold a whimper's worth of volume.To begin with, the Lisa didn't deliver what it promised. The display wasn't as big as we'd hoped, the resolution wasn't as good, and performance inside the applications was dog slow. The proprietary floppy disks were hideously expensive and difficult to find. Peripherals were nonexistent. Even if you didn't care about any of the above and possessed a new car's worth of cash to drop on a Lisa, your local Apple dealer might not be able to get you one due to production issues.Does any of this sound familiar? I bet it does --- to Volt intenders. The Volt has consistently under-delivered on its promises, from the styling to the open-road fuel mileage. It costs more than anyone outside of GM's own insane maze thinks is reasonable . The man on the street doesn't want one and the the Volt true believers couldn't take delivery thanks to restricted production.
5 comments:
The second model of the Lisa was renamed the "Macintosh XL." Sales rose so dramatically that Apple were forced to discontinue that product also. In the wake of Lisa's commercial failure, they had under-produced parts for the XL and could not service the amount of demand. Future Apple products profitably incorporated aspects of the Lisa.
Sometimes things lead to other things.
Some bankruptcies lead to more bankruptcies.
Sometimes things lead to other things.
That is... brilliant.
Sometimes things lead to other things.
And vice versa!
That is... brilliant.
Seriously, though, did you honestly interpret that as "like, dude, stuff keeps on happening"? Because I started with the first paragraph and saw "Progress is built upon past work." The Lisa flopped, but its inner workings were subsequently incorporated into great successes. It's enough to BLOW YOUR MIND!
Or maybe Henry Ford's Model T emerged whole on a giant shell from the foamy sea, like the birth of Aphrodite.
For the argument that guy was trying to make, nope, the Lisa wasn't the sharpest analogy. Not in a world that's seen New Coke, Windows Vista, the Zune, and other high-PR products that led to nothing. Seems like he let his personal history with the Lisa cloud his critical eye.
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