A brief history of Apple part 1: The Apple Computer

I have to say that I love the history of Apple and I know a lot about it. So I am going to write a series of articles trying to go into details that some people might not know. I'm not going to go into unnecesary technical details because it's more about the history but if anyone wan't more details just ask in the comments.

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Apple was founded by 3 people. Yep that's right, apart from Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak there was a third person, Ronald Wayne. Wayne had a 10% of the shares and he actually sold them just 12 days after Apple beind incorporated 2nd April 1976. He sold his shares for $800 and he has always said since that he does not regret it. Hard to believe!

Before leaving Wayne did some work for Apple. He designed the first logo before the famous bitten Apple (see in the pictures) and he wrote the manual for the Apple I (Apple Computer back then).

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But let's focus on the machine. Steve Wozniak attended a Homebrew Conputer Club in 1975 and he found the motivation to build his own machine. He has it ready in less than a year. It was Steve Jobs's idea to sell it as Wozniak only did it for fun.

They had an amazing machine compared to the other computers of the time. A computer back then was just a box with a few lights that people would program to make sequences or beeps. Yes, that was considered real nerd stuff. Wozniak's computer could use a keyboard an a tv to display images.

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To start the company Steve Jobs sold his VW van and Steve Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator.

Steve Jobs managed to sell a few machines to the ByteShop. The machines were priced at $666.66, Wozniak liked to repeat numbers. The real number of sold units is unclear but it seems to be around 200. The boards were manufactured in the garage of Jobs's parents house. They had help from friends and they were unsure they would be able to pay them for their work.

The Apple I was sold as a board: no box, no keyboard, no screen,... just the board. The users had to build the rest and there were some very original builds by enthusiasts like in shoeboxes, suitcases, handmade wood cases, etc. It was discontinued in 1977 as the new Apple II was out with better features.

As of today there are 63 Apple I's accounted for. It is a rare and expensive collectors item.

The Apple I paved the way to create the Apple that we know today. After their initial success they attracted the attention of angel investor Mike Markula and everything took off. But this will come in Part 2.