Got $10k to burn? Ultra-rare Piet Mondrian-esque Apple laptop is up for grabs on eBay
- Reference: 1618394527
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/14/apple_rare_laptop_ebay/
- Source link:
Apple released a model of the laptop in 1992 to coincide with that year's JLPGA (Japanese Ladies Professional Golf Association) tournament. It was, to put it mildly, a bit of an odd fish.
[1]
Produced in small numbers (estimates put it at around 500), the Japan exclusive looked a bit like a Piet Mondrian painting. The display bezels and palmrest were blue; the display top-case was white; the battery case and sliding panels were red; the hinges were yellow; and the rotating kickstand was green. It almost looks as though it was made of Lego.
This weirdness, combined with the machine's relative scarcity, has made it a sought-after item for some collectors. One mint edition model, [2]listed on eBay this weekend by the owners of Dubai's largest private vintage Apple collection, has a starting price of $2,999.99. Based on historical prices, it wouldn't be a surprise to see it sell for three times that.
[3]
[4]
Click to enlarge
Or perhaps more. The vintage computing hobby has [5]exploded during the pandemic as bored tech-heads try to find something to occupy the dreary lockdown months. Prices are sky-high, and scarcity breeds demand, especially when it comes to retro kit.
By contrast, the standard PowerBook 170 in working condition typically sells for under $300. And this is effectively the same computer, with the only difference, save for the unique design, an extra 4MB RAM.
Otherwise, you get the same awkward trackball mouse. The same 25MHz Motorola 68030 CPU. The same 9.8-inch monochrome Active Matrix display.
The JLPGA PowerBook 170 arrived in the waning months of John Sculley's tenure as CEO of Apple. Sculley wasn't much of a technologist at the time; he was a marketer, best known for coming up with the "Pepsi Challenge" as president of the North Carolina sugar-water manufacturer.
And this machine is Sculley through and through. It was a one-time machine, designed to drum up enthusiasm and media column inches, but with little bearing on the long-term direction of the company from a product position.
It's an oddity, basically. Still, by the standards of the Apple 1, which routinely sells for over $1m, it's more affordable. And, given the ongoing direction of the company, we're unlikely to see anything like it ever again.
[6]
Does that make it almost worth the possible $10,000 finishing price. You, dear readers, be the judge of that. ®
Get our [7]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YHcRnasH9YSBYwo9PXKRGgAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Macintosh-PowerBook-170-JLGPA-Limited-Editon/184757912476?
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YHcRnasH9YSBYwo9PXKRGgAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/04/13/rarepowerbookmac.jpg
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/style/retrocomputing.html
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YHcRnasH9YSBYwo9PXKRGgAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
Sorry, but it's a Fisher-Price work of art... just a bit too smooth to be lego...
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
Looks like something VTEC might sell, marketed at kids, "My First Computer" :-)
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
Clearly it's a toy, it's 30 years old. Surely you're not suggesting folk are buying 30 year old kit for every day computing purposes?
And again clearly the designer was trying to be original. And to be fair one could argue they were successful. Also see VW's 1995 Polo Harlequin
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
I'm using an IBM 5150 to make music - the Cakewalk sequencer on DOS, with a clone of Roland's MPU 401 interface. Not using it every day, but whenever I make music which is a couple of times a week.
I find a lot of old machines and software allow me to get on with what I want to do, without overly complex and poorly thought out UI. Reliability isn't a major issue either - recapping and replacing hard drives with solid state upgrades.
Thanks to the hobbyist scene mentioned in the article, there are some amazing forums and products our there.
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
I tried to be careful in my comment to make it clear I was referring to 'everyday' applications. I am certain you enjoy the experience of the older kit as much as the output, I know I do when using my old kit.
And speaking of music (Cakewalk, that took me back. FruityLopps was another I vaguely recall?) my vinyl and analogue amp are 90s era and I still enjoy using those but I own a few Sonos and my CDs are also ripped to Flac on my NAS. Time and a place for everything.
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
It certainly is orginal. My friend had one, but with the boring grey plastic casing though. It was the first Mac I'd ever used. He brought it to me during the Superbowl, when we were students. I was drunk (it was 2am) and he was frantically finishing an essay - he'd hit print and not hit save first. Textbook error! It had got into some kind of loop of essay-death, where it wouldn't print or cancel the print job. I managed to fix it in the end and get back to the cheap cider I was probably drinking.
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
It'll run BSD, therefor I can run my businesses on it.
Not that I would, mind. Not reliable enough, not even back then.
Most business doesn't really require glitter, rainbows, moons, stars and my little pony.
Re: "It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
"Clearly some "designer" was trying to be "original"."
This was addressed in TFA ...
"arrived in the waning months of John Sculley's tenure as CEO of Apple."
Pass the crayons please
It looks like something that someone from the coloured crayon department whipped up as a bit of a joke for their prepubescent sprog ..... and then their mangler saw it and decided to put it into production!
Piet Mondrian-esque
Mondrian didn't use much green... I'd have gone for Google-esque.
Hm.......
1) Buy a standard PowerBook for $300
2) Splash it a la Jackson Pollock
3) profit
O je
As someone who has a few old Macs lying around, I never saw the attraction of this machine. Give me a IIci over this anyday — a tenth of the price and much more usable, although it is not easy to set up in a coffeeshop. I suppose that it is an investment vehicle more than anything else.
Anyway, the capacitors are beginning to blow now and the plastics are so brittle, that they are barely usable. Vintage tech from the late 1980s-early 1990s is starting to disintegrate now and unless you have a zeal to repair them, they just aren't worth the effort. Although I'm sure that many of the readers here are handy with a soldering iron, know what capacitors are and would simply ask, why wouldn't you want to repair it? Time to put the 3D-scanner and 3D-printer to use.
However, If you do want a good Powerbook from that era and have that sort of money lying around, get yourself a 540c or 550c (with japanese keyboard), or better still a Wallstreet or Pismo. If you just want to play old Mac games or simply open up PageMaker again out of nostalgia, the emulators mini vMac, Basilisk II & Sheepshaver come well recommended.
Re: O je
Oh, I adore my Pismo. I've got three (technically two Pismos and one Lombard, although both machines are fairly similar).
You're right about the leaking capacitors leaking and the brittle plastics, but I think part of the fun of retrocomputing is actually fixing these products and making them usable again. It's the same mentality behind people who buy old bangers and nurse them back to health.
Even if you don't fix them, I like the idea of retro computers as art. There are three iMac G3s in my office, and while I don't regularly use them (and one is pretty much entirely buggered -- dead flyback transformer), I do find they brighten up the place a bit.
Re: O je
Worth remembering than an old banger, once nursed back to health, can do most of what you need a car to do... with retro computing you will still need some kind of modern-ish kit if you want to work / play.
Re: O je
"Vintage tech from the late 1980s-early 1990s is starting to disintegrate now"
I've had good luck with 1980s Sun kit, should anyone wish to dip their toes in the water of retro computing. Even the tape and floppy drives seem to mostly still work, if you take the time to earn how to properly clean them first.
Back of the envelope suggests ...
... that the thing has held it's value, when adjusting for inflation. Just.
I actually like this. If someone came out with a modern clone of it that ran Ubuntu, or maybe Free BSD, I'd probably splash out a couple of hundred Euros on one.
Maybe that's just me though. I once enjoyed myself while listening to "Mr Blobby*", so clearly I have no taste...
* in my defence, this was a very long time ago. I am considerably older, if no wiser, now.
"It almost looks as though it was made of Lego"
The Grumpy Old Man mutters "well said Matthew". Clearly some "designer" was trying to be "original". If you need to try, you shouldn't bother.
But it clearly is a toy - 25MHz, 4-8MB for $10k? Pure plaything. Ok, rarity value maybe (he says grudgingly), but you could get quite a bit of real computing power for $10K (without a fruity badge attached).