The launch of Apple's first product took place on April 11, 1976, 45 years ago. It was just a motherboard, about 60 chips, fully assembled. Thus was born the Apple Puter, later named the Apple Puter 1.
The “putador” was put together by electronics engineer Steve Wozniak, who had a lot of technical knowledge but no business sense.
And that's where Steve Jobs entered the story. He even worked in the electronics industry, but what he really liked was marketing and was determined not to be employed by anyone. Enthusiastic about the creation of his friend Wozniak, Jobs convinced him to start producing more units of the board, to be sold on the market. But the story didn't stop there. At that time, Steve Wozniak was an employee of the giant Hewlett Packard, and by contract, any of his inventions would be owned by the company. As fate would have it, HP did not show interest in the project, and the duo was released to follow the plans.
To finance the project, Jobs sold an old van and engine problems for a few hundred dollars and convinced Wozniak to sell an HP-65 calculator, at the time a precious tool for engineers, for $500. started assembling the boards in a room at Jobs's adoptive father's home in Palo Alto, California.
Ronald Wayne, a colleague of Jobs at Atari and twice their age, was invited to participate in the venture, and became the third partner.
It was Wayne who wrote the company's first articles of association, and asked Steve Jobs what the name of the company would be. Jobs immediately suggested "Apple", and nobody had another idea, the name was adopted. Ronald then designed the first logo: an image of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree.
Soon, Steve Jobs got a contract to deliver 50 units for $500 each to the Byte Shop, a computer store in the city of Mountain View, California.
It was a success. Production was expanded, and the “assembly line” moved to the house's garage. Later, each Apple 1 was sold at $666,66 because Wozniak liked repeating numbers, and that was the original retail price plus a third of the profit. But some rumors attributed the value to Wozniak's laziness when it came to typing...
It's easy to see that the Apple 1 had nothing to do with what we understand by a personal computer today. It was just a board, the components and connectors installed. Pradors, usually electronics students or interested hobbyists, had to do a lot of work to get a putador that could be used. Power supplies, keyboards and monitors were not included. The latter were usually improvised adapted television sets. The cabinets also had to be made by the pradors, or ordered in the computer shops. They were almost always built of wood, and the result was not always pretty…
But it was a revolution. From then on, the “Steves” duo got partners interested in investing in more inventions, and Apple took off. Today, it is the largest technology company on the planet, the market value surpassing one trillion dollars…
From $ 500 to $ 1,5m
The owner of an Apple-1, from Apple's first line of computers, dating back to 1976, listed the device on eBay for $1,5 million, or about R$8,1 million in direct conversion. The rarity, according to the advertiser, is still fully functional. The Apple-1 line was designed and hand built by Steve Wozniak, while the models were sold by Steve Jobs. Both were co-founders of Apple.
According to the announcement, the Apple-1 in question has a certificate of authenticity and is one of 50 units sold to the Byte Shop – one of the first personal putation stores. The putador comes with the original wooden box from the store, power supply and original keyboard.
The seller also claims that the puter uses an unmodified NTI card and takes a Sony TV-115. He mentions, in the ad, that he is the second owner of this Apple-1 and that the model was acquired in 1978 “from the original owner or part of an exchange for an Apple II putador”.
"This is a rare opportunity, there are less than six original wooden boxes from the surviving Byte Shop," he says. He also mentions that the unit advertised on eBay is in better condition than the other boxes “in museum collections”.
Too rare to be mailed
However, interested parties are advised by the advertiser about the sale. "This item will not be sent by the owner, as it is very valuable for risking any damage, loss or fraud", he informs.
The Apple-1's hardware is based on an MOS 6502 microprocessor, 8 bits, 1 MHz power. The default memory is 4KB, but user can still upgrade to 8KB or 48KB. It is estimated that only about 200 units of the Apple-1 were produced.
In the past, other units of the rare putador have also been advertised and sold on online platforms. Gizmodo recalls that, in 2010, a unit of the computer, complete with original packaging and a letter signed by Jobs, sold for $210. Later in 2014, another Apple-1 sold for $905 at auction.
Via: Gizmodo
