[Joel_Mckay]

>Lisa was not exactly overpriced

Perhaps for a lucky few, but its relative value was unsustainable in that market condition.

We both know Jobs would have wanted more out of MacBook Neo for the users. I think the coin-sweating on modern budget-platforms like Chromebooks would have never made it past his desk. He understood brand goodwill value all too well. =3

[musicale]

> its relative value was unsustainable in that market condition

The Lisa 2 was "only" $1000 more than the ($2495) Macintosh, and included a full office software suite. Ironically though that may have been a reason why developers targeted the Mac, which only included MacWrite and MacPaint.

[Joel_Mckay]

Having fully integrated office platforms with highly limited use-cases is a laggard consumer product.

Then selling people a "cheaper version" of a bad deal tainted the branding further. Even the "free" upgrades for original Lisa owners drives was essentially telegraphing customers people had ripped them off already.

Sometimes, offering a discount on a bad deal just makes the brand damage worse. =3

[cmrdporcupine]

Yes like many companies in that era, Apple didn't really understand the value of third party developers until later and they tried to make the Lisa into a holistic closed system, a whole solution, packaging everything and leave little room for third parties.

And the copy protection & licensing was extremely strict on it, as well.