Editing Apple III (section)

===Software===
[[File:Desktop Computer - The Future for Medicine (FDA 095) (8249708093).jpg|thumb|An advertisement for access to health information through the Apple III]]

The Apple III introduced an advanced operating system called [[Apple SOS]], pronounced "apple sauce". Its ability to address resources by name allows the Apple III to be more scalable than the Apple II's addressing by physical location such as <code>PR#6</code> and <code>CATALOG, D1</code>. Apple SOS allows the full capacity of a storage device to be used as a single volume, such as the [[Apple ProFile]] [[hard disk drive]], and it supports a [[hierarchical file system]]. Some of the features and [[codebase|code]] base of Apple SOS were later adopted into the Apple II's [[Apple ProDOS|ProDOS]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Beneath Apple ProDOS|author1=Don Worth|author2=Pieter Lechner|publisher=Quality Software|year=1985|pages=2-4, 4-1, 6-12, E-3|isbn=0-912985-05-4}}</ref> and [[Apple GS/OS|GS/OS]] operating systems, as well as [[Apple Lisa|Lisa 7/7]] and [[Classic Mac OS|Mac OS]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}

With a starting price of $4,340 (equivalent to $17,356 as of 2024) and a maximum price of $7,800 (equivalent to $31,194 as of 2024), the Apple III was more expensive than many of the [[CP/M]]-based business computers that were available at the time.<ref name="avuqmb" /> Few software applications other than VisiCalc are available for the computer;{{r|moore198209}} according to a presentation at [[KansasFest]] 2012, fewer than 50 Apple III-specific software packages were ever published, most shipping when the III Plus was released.<ref name="kansasfest2012">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St08mKEG2EM#t=31m42s | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211122/St08mKEG2EM| archive-date=2021-11-22 | url-status=live|title=Apple III: A Closer Look |date=May 25, 2012 |last=Maginnis |first=Mike |via=YouTube |time=31:42}}{{cbignore}}</ref> However this number is proven to be wildly incorrect, given the manual 'RESOURCE GUIDE: Of Apple /// and Apple /// Plus Software and Hardware' published and released by Apple Computer, Inc. in May 1984 lists in excess of 500+ software packages produced by many and varied publishers. Given software publishers and specialised hardware manufacturers such as On-Three, Inc. produced products for the Apple III well in to the late 90s, in excess of 500 products can also be seen as way too conservative.

Because Apple did not view the Apple III as suitable for hobbyists, it did not provide much of the technical software information that accompanies the Apple II.<ref name="moore198209" /> Originally intended as a direct replacement to the Apple II, it was designed to be [[backward compatible]] with Apple II software. However, since Apple did not want to encourage continued development of the II platform, Apple II compatibility exists only in a special Apple II Mode which is limited in its capabilities to the [[emulator|emulation]] of a basic Apple II Plus configuration with {{val|48|ul=kB}} of RAM.

Special chips were intentionally added to prevent access from Apple II Mode to the III's advanced features such as its larger amount of memory.<ref name="byte198501" />