Metaphor Computer Systems: Difference between revisions

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[[David Liddle]] and Donald Massaro founded Metaphor in 1982 after leaving [[Xerox PARC]].<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news|title='IBM Gets Stake in Metaphor to Enhance Its PCs'

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-19-fi-1256-story.html|access-date= 28 February 2012|newspaper=LA Times|date=19 April 1988}}</ref> By 1987, the company had an annual revenue of $39.7 million.<ref name="LATimes"/> In 1991, [[IBM]], one of its primary customers, acquired the company outright.<ref>{{cite news|title='Metaphor Chief Hired By I.B.M.'

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/13/business/business-people-metaphor-chief-hired-by-ibm.html?|accessdate= 28 February 2012|newspaper=New York Times|date=13 November 1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Bass |first1=Thomas A. |title=Think Tanked |url=https://www.wired.com/1999/12/interval/#:~:text=Metaphor%20Computer |access-date=2 March 2025 |work=Wired Magazine |date=1 December 1999}}</ref>

===Patriot Partners===

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===Hardware===

Released in September 1984, the Metaphor workstation had infrared wireless input devices: keyboard, mouse, numeric pad, and five-function keypad. This was the first commercial appearance of a cordless input devices like mouse, etc. The input devices docked in the desktop workstation where they were recharged. Objects on the desktop and open applications had a uniform command set that could be controlled by the keypad which had Copy, Move, Delete, Options, and Size. The workstations were [[Motorola 68000]]-based, networked with [[Ethernet]], and contained 1 MB RAM.

The industrial design of the workstation was done by [[Mike Nuttall]] of Matrix Product Design. It won a gold medal from the IDSA. The workstation itself was engineered by James Yurchenco at David Kelley Design. Both Matrix and David Kelley Design were precursors of [[IDEO]].

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[[Category:Defunct computer systems companies]]

[[Category:Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area]]

[[Category:Software companies based in Mountain View, California]][[Category:Xerox spin-offs]]