Fergie's Tech Blog

1 April 1976: Happy Birthday, Apple Computer

The rise of Apple Computer is one of America's great success stories. Based on the business and technical savvy of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and the marketing expertise of Mike Markkula, Apple dominated the personal computer industry from 1977 to 1983.

Jobs and Wozniak, ("the two Steves") had been friends since 1972. Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a personal computer and selling it. Jobs approached a local computer store, The Byte Shop, who, after Jobs' famous persuasion, ordered fifty units and paid $500 for each unit. Jobs then ordered components from Cramer Electronics, a national electronic parts distributor. Using a variety of methods, including borrowing space from friends and family and selling various items including a Volkswagen Type 2 bus, Jobs managed to secure the parts needed while Wozniak and another friend, Ronald Wayne, assembled the Apple I.

Apple Computer was thus founded in Los Altos, California on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, to sell the Apple I personal computer kit at $666.66. They were hand-built in Jobs' parents' garage, and the Apple I was first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club.

The Apple I was delivered in June, and paid for on delivery. Eventually 200 Apple I computers were built.

Note that the original Apple I was simply a motherboard, it was not a full computer as we know it today.

posted by Fergie @ 3/31/2006 10:01:00 PM