An extremely rare Apple W.A.L.T (Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone) protoype has been sold on eBay for $8,000, or the value of sixteen iPads. The W.A.L.T was a telephone with a stylus, touch screen LCD, fax and address book among other things, and was loosely based around the Apple Newton, also available at the time.
Here’s the eBay description:
I have decided it’s time to let go of the jewel of my collection. The W.A.LT. is an incredibly rare find and will make your collection the envy of all the Apple fanatics out there. Apple introduced W.A.LT. at 1993’s MacWorld Boston yet never made it available to the public. The revolutionary product’s acronym stands for Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone. This device featured a high-resolution touch screen LCD w/ stylus, hand writing recognition, fax, address book, caller ID, online banking, speakerphone, message pad, and personalized ring tones. Clearly a device way ahead of it’s time.
The W.A.LT. ran Mac OS 6.0.8 with Hypercard in place of the Finder. It was co-developed with Bell South. It also has hidden support for external SCSI and VGA out. This rare model (#68) is one of the few prototypes in existence. I even have an printed manual from Apple! Back in 2008 PC World published a list of the “Top 15 Vaporware Products of All Time”. The W.A.L.T. was #1.
This device is in excellent condition for a prototype. I’m more a collector then a tech so I’m not the tinkering type. Both the screen and the hard drive work sporadically. It seems quite apparent that there are some loose connections. Though I’m selling the device as is, I feel confident that someone could get inside this and have it working consistently in no time. It has been fully functional. This is an incredible device and I hope to find a good home for it.
Even though $8,000 might seem like a steep price, it’s definitely worth it for an Apple prototype that they won’t ever make again.
