In 1976, The Apple 1 computer went on sale for a retail price of $666.66. Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and designed that product, remembers the early days.
1976The Apple I computer goes on sale for a retail price of $666.66.
You said you saw a revolution coming. Do you think Steve Jobs did? He had always spoken about wanting to be a person that moves the world forward, but he couldn’t really create things and design them like I could. Steve wanted a company real badly. His thinking was not necessarily about what computers would do for the average Joe in the average home. Steve found the words that explained what these computers would do for people and how important it was a little later in life.
You mentioned you didn’t like conflict. Did Steve like conflict? Steve was going to make sure that his position was strong and forceful and heard by others. Thankfully he had the best brain. He usually had a little, tiny suggestion, but almost always he was right.
How many computers did you sell? We only sold about a hundred Apple I’s. Of the Apple II’s, we probably sold a few thousand through the first year. And then [we designed] a spreadsheet program that let small businessmen do more work in one hour than they could do in 10 years with pencil and paper. Sales shot up. It was maybe five years before we sold a million—the first computer ever to sell a million.
Did you think Apple would become a behemoth? When we started the company, I knew that the computer was so far ahead of anything the rest of the world had ever seen. We knew we had a revolution. Everyone who joined Apple, this was the greatest thing in their life.
An unknown bidder from Asia spent almost halb a million Euro for this Apple-1 in working condition. On 25th May 2013 this marvelous piece of computer history came under the hammer at Auction Team Breker in Germany. The auction house based in Cologne got 516,461 Euro ($671,400). The Apple-1 originally sold in 1976 for $666 (about $2,700 in current dollars).
The Apple-1 was designed and handmade by Steve Wozniak, and was marketed in April 1976 by Steve Jobs through electronics retail chain, the “Byte Shop”, which bought the first 50 units. The first Apple computer was delivered as a motherboard only. The peripheral equipment such as power pack, keyboard, monitor and cassette recorder had to be obtained personally by the user. Apple didn’t offer a housing; every user had to make his own. The peripheral items in this auction were authentic and correspond to the motherboard as recommended by Apple.
Only 200 examples of the Apple-1 were ever made. According to the Apple-1 Registry by Mike Willegal, today there are only 46 sets in existence worldwide, but just 6 of these are in fully-working condition, and the example offered here was one of those.
According to the New York Times the original owner of that Apple-1 was Fred Hatfield, a retired electrical engineer living in New Orleans. Mr. Hatfield attached an image of a letter, dated Jan, 18, 1978 and addressed to him, signed by Mr. Jobs. Mr. Hatfield in New Orleans said he held onto his Apple-1 until earlier this year. Then, a young man from Texas in the software business, whom Mr. Hatfield would not identify, inquired. They negotiated a price — $40,000.
The Apple-1, Mr. Hatfield said the New York Times, was not then in working condition. The buyer apparently put in some new chips and wiring, since it was a working model when it sold on 25th May 2013. After picking up the machine, Mr. Hatfield said, the young man flew off to California to get the machine signed by Mr. Wozniak, who designed the Apple-1. That also enhanced its value presumably.
The original Apple Computer, also known retroactively as the Apple I, or Apple-1, is a personal computer released by the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) in 1976. They were designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Wozniak’s friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer. The Apple I was Apple’s first product, and to finance its creation, Jobs sold his only means of transportation, a VW van and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500. It was demonstrated in July 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California.
The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 at a price of US$666.66, because Wozniak “liked repeating digits” and because they originally sold it to a local shop for $500 plus a one-third markup. About 200 units were produced. Unlike other hobbyist computers of its day, which were sold as kits, the Apple I was a fully assembled circuit board containing about 60+ chips. However, to make a working computer, users still had to add a case, power supply transformers, power switch, ASCII keyboard, and composite video display. An optional board providing a cassette interface for storage was later released at a cost of $75.
Introductory advertisement for the Apple I Computer
The Apple I’s built-in computer terminal circuitry was distinctive. All one needed was a keyboard and an inexpensive television set. Competing machines such as the Altair 8800 generally were programmed with front-mounted toggle switches and used indicator lights (red LEDs, most commonly) for output, and had to be extended with separate hardware to allow connection to a computer terminal or a teletypewriter machine. This made the Apple I an innovative machine for its day. In April 1977 the price was dropped to $475. It continued to be sold through August 1977, despite the introduction of the Apple II in April 1977, which began shipping in June of that year. Apple dropped the Apple I from its price list by October 1977, officially discontinuing it.
As Wozniak was the only person who could answer most customer support questions about the computer, the company offered Apple I owners discounts and trade-ins for Apple IIs to persuade them to return their computers, contributing to their scarcity. In 1976, Concord High School Junior Wai Lee assembled one of the first 12 Apple Is (no serial number), the first Apple Computer in an aluminum housing.
As of 2012, less than 50 Apple I computers (with only six in working order) are believed to exist, making it a very rare collector’s item.
An Apple I reportedly sold for $50,000 USD at auction in 1999.
A unit was sold in September 2009 for $17,000 on eBay.
A unit was sold on March 23, 2010 for $42,766 on eBay.
In November 2010, an Apple I with serial number 82 sold for £133,250 ($210,000) at Christie’s auction house in London. The high price was likely due to the rare documents and packaging offered in the sale in addition to the computer, including the original packaging (with the return label showing Steve Jobs’ parents’ address, the original Apple Computer Inc ‘headquarters’ being their garage), a personally typed and signed letter from Jobs (answering technical questions about the computer), and the original invoice showing ‘Steven’ as the salesman. The computer was brought to Polytechnic University of Turin where it was fixed and used to run the BASIC programming language.
On June 15 2012, a working Apple I was sold at auction by Sotheby’s for a record $374,500, more than double the expected price.
In October 2012, another (very early – Serial number 22) Apple I in a Christie´s auction found no bidder who was willing to pay the starting price of 80.000 GBP.
On November 24, 2012, a working Apple I was sold at auction by Auction Team Breker for € 400,000
Steve Wozniak remembers building the first Apple Computer at Authors Business Series Luncheon talking about his book “iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way”:
