April 11, 1976: Apple releases its first computer, the Apple-1.
Designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak, the computers are sold wholesale by “Steven” Jobs. To finance their manufacturing, Wozniak sells his HP-65 calculator for $500, while Jobs sells his Volkswagen van.
Apple-1: The first Apple computer
While the machine itself was quite rudimentary, the Apple-1 laid the foundation the personal computing era for Apple’s incredible future success.
In terms of specs, the first Apple computer was incredibly primitive. An 8-bit MOS 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz powered the machine. It came with 4KB of memory as standard, although expansion cards could boost this to 8KB or 48KB. Users had to add their own keyboard and monitor, although the latter could be a regular TV set, which made the Apple-1 innovative for its day. (And also, arguably, makes the Apple-1 the company’s first set-top box.)
A proof of concept for the Homebrew Computer Club
Wozniak started working on the computer as a hobby, with no goal beyond showing it off to the people at the local Homebrew Computer Club, a hobbyist group whose meetings he attended in Menlo Park, California.
“I did this computer … to show the people at Homebrew that it was possible to build a very affordable computer — a real computer you could program for the price of the Altair — with just a few chips,” Wozniak recalled in his autobiography, iWoz.
His partner Steve Jobs convinced Woz that they would do better building and selling the Apple-1 rather than giving away the designs. Then Jobs approached Paul Terrell, who owned The Byte Shop in nearby Mountain View, California, one of the first personal computer stores.
Terrell rejected Jobs’ first suggestion that the Apple-1 should come in kit form. He told Jobs that, with computers becoming more mainstream, people wanted to buy fully assembled machines.
Apple-1 launch price: $666.66
Jobs listened and agreed. So, Terrell said he would buy 50 Apple-1 computers for $500 each, although cash would only be paid upon delivery. Terrell then marked up the computers to $666.66, or the equivalent of more than $3,700 today. (Years later, in 2014, a working Apple-1 will sell at auction for $905,000.)
Ultimately, the Apple-1 didn’t hang around too long. Apple only built 200 or so of its first computers. The number of surviving units is significantly smaller today, due to both the computers’ age and the fact that Apple offered a trade-in deal when it launched the significantly upgraded Apple II the following year.
Looking back, the Apple-1 seems quaint compared to the supercomputers we carry in our pockets today. But in 1976, its launch was a pivotal moment. This handmade machine gave rise to a trillion-dollar empire that made computing easy and ubiquitous with revolutionary products like the iPhone and the Mac.
