One of the first Apple computers sells for $400,000 : NPR
John Moran Auctioneers, Inc.
The primary Apple-1 computer systems had been offered for $666.66 in 1976. Forty-five years later, a still-functioning one has offered for $400,000.
John Moran Auctioneers in Monrovia, Calif., auctioned it off on Tuesday, certainly one of 200 Apple-1 computer systems that had been designed, constructed and examined by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, with assist from Patty Jobs and Daniel Kottke.
“What we have now with the Apple-1 is form of just like the holy grail of classic laptop amassing,” says Corey Cohen, an Apple and expertise historian.
The computer auctioned is known as the “Chaffey College” Apple-1 as a result of its authentic proprietor was a professor at Chaffey Faculty in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. He ended up promoting the pc to a scholar in 1977 in order that he might purchase an Apple-II laptop.
The scholar, who stays unidentified, has stored the pc till now.
Apple-1s got here as motherboards, with circumstances, keyboards and screens offered individually. The unit encompasses a case placed on by The Byte Store in Mountain View, Calif., which was the first store to sell Apple products.
Keith Berson/John Moran Auctioneers, Inc.
The case is fabricated from koa wooden, certainly one of solely six identified koa wooden circumstances in existence, in line with the public sale home. Koa wooden, native to Hawaii, was considerable within the Seventies, however has develop into rarer and costlier as a result of cattle grazing and logging.
Apple-1 was the beginning of the private laptop trade
The Apple-1 was the primary Apple product to be offered. It marked the beginning of the private laptop trade.
It was the primary private laptop that got here with a guaranty. “It was assured to work,” Cohen says. “Previous to that, there have been different computer systems. They had been kits. They principally did not work once you bought them.”
They had been initially offered for $666.66. “Whereas that sounds fairly ominous, 666, it is as a result of Steve Wozniak likes repeating numbers,” Cohen tells Morning Version. “Even his personal cellphone quantity on the time had a repeating quantity.”
He mentioned this particular machine not solely represents the beginning of Apple, however the ingenuity of Wozniak and Jobs and their imaginative and prescient “the place a pc is not one thing to be afraid of, a pc is one thing that may be a part of your life and will help enhance your life.”
“It took a very long time, I feel, for individuals to catch on to that concept,” he says. “However it’s one thing that, you realize, it helps individuals sort of really feel nearer to that progress.”
Tien Le is an intern on NPR’s Information Desk. Barry Gordemer and Jessica Inexperienced produced the audio model of this story.