Banana Jr. Series Computer

The Banana computer was first introduced in 1984, and was labeled as "Jr." to emphasize its affordability. This obscure computer system had a number of innovative hardware and software features. Many of these features were too far ahead of its time, and it had many shortcomings which ultimately doomed it to failure.

Notable features included:

* A fully graphical operating environment.
* A powerful word processing, spreadsheet, and management package.
* Powerful 32-bit CPU.
Speech recognition.
* User friendly interactive AI interface.

The shortcomings included:

* Some assembly was was required by end users. (Quite a bit of assembly actually)
* Reportedly the documentation for the 9000 model was shipped with the 6000 model causing some confusion.
* The interactive AI was very uncooperative. (This AI is now being used by Microsoft in Windows XP)
Problems with the self-portability features were suspected, but never proven, to be the cause of Banana Jr. owners often finding their kitchen appliances lying in front of their living room televisions.

The Banana Computer Company went out of business in April of 1985. Reportedly it was a painful demise for the company, losing $319 million in march alone. The chairman of the board did a swan dive out of a 63rd floor window after painting "capitalism sucks" across his chest. The brains behind the design of the Banana Jr. , Berke Breathed, reportedly went insane and became a cartoonist. The Banana Jr. was discontinued and the platform abandoned...

Read more...