Apple-1 Computer (Wozniak-built working unit)

A computer built to impress a club

Steve Wozniak designed the Apple-1 largely to impress the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of electronics hobbyists that met in the Palo Alto area. He finished the basic design by March 1, 1976, and he alone designed the hardware, the circuit board and the operating system. While working at Hewlett-Packard designing calculators, he offered the design to his employer, which turned it down five times.

The machine ran on a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor at 1.022727 MHz with 4KB of RAM that could be expanded. It had composite video output, so a buyer could plug it into an ordinary television instead of paying for an expensive terminal. What it did not have was a case, a keyboard or a power supply: owners added those themselves.

On April 1, 1976, Wozniak and Steve Jobs formed the Apple Computer Company with Ronald Wayne, whose involvement was brief. Jobs saw the commercial potential. Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop ordered 50 fully assembled boards at $500 each, and Wozniak, Jobs and a small crew built them by hand in Jobs's parents' home in Los Altos, first in his bedroom and then in the garage. The Apple-1 went on sale in July 1976 at $666.66.

The year of the Bicentennial and the hobbyist

In 1976 the United States celebrated its 200th birthday, Viking 1 sent back the first close-up color pictures from the surface of Mars, and Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford for the presidency. Personal computers were a hobbyist's obsession, sold as boards and kits to people who could solder.

About 200 Apple-1s were made, and all but 25 sold within nine or ten months. The Apple II followed in April 1977 and became one of the first highly successful mass-produced personal computers. The Apple-1 was officially discontinued in October 1977.

The same year Apple formed, Microsoft was registered as a company in New Mexico, on November 26, 1976. Both firms started in the hobbyist world the Apple-1 was made for.

From a Cincinnati user group to Dearborn

This board was one of the 50 Wozniak hand-built in the summer of 1976 for the Byte Shop. Around 1980 it was acquired by John Anderson, founder of the Cincinnati AppleSiders, an early Apple enthusiast group. He understood its value as a historical object early and kept it under glass from 1989.

In August 2014, Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen booted it up. He called it one of the best working early Apple-1 boards he had seen, with no modifications ever made to the motherboard; even the screws on the power regulators showed no heat cycling. Every chip on the board and the cassette interface was tested and only one date-correct replacement chip was needed; the vintage power supply and keyboard had minor repairs, including a date-correct chip in the keyboard.

Offered on October 22, 2014, at a history of science sale in New York with an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000, it sold for $905,000 to The Henry Ford, the museum of American innovation in Dearborn, Michigan. It was described at the time as the highest price yet paid for an Apple-1 at auction. The museum's president, Patricia Mooradian, called it a key artifact in the foundation of the digital revolution.

The lot came with the user group's papers too: the first Poke-Apple newsletter from February 1979 and VHS tapes of Wozniak's 1980 keynote at an 'Applevention.' The museum displayed the computer from April 11 to 30, 2016, to mark Apple's 40th anniversary, as a preview of a planned permanent technology exhibit.

Why a working, unmodified board matters

Most surviving Apple-1s have been repaired, modified or damaged over five decades. At the 2014 sale, about 15 Apple-1s were known to have been run successfully since 2000, and fewer than five working units had sold publicly in the previous four years, all with damage or modifications. This was described as the only one known to operate without replacement parts or modifications to its motherboard.

Counts of survivors vary by source and date. The 2014 sale materials cited 64 known of the roughly 200 produced, with 15 operational. A more recent count puts the documented survivors at 62 to 82.

Two other Apple-1s sold the year before set the bar this one cleared: one with a letter from Steve Jobs brought $671,400 in May 2013, and another with its original packaging brought $330,000 in October 2013.

The machine that founded a company

The Apple-1 was the first computer the new Apple Computer Company sold, and the Byte Shop order of 50 boards was how it began. A working board, left as it was built, is as close as anyone can get to seeing what Wozniak and Jobs actually delivered in 1976.

The museum's executive vice president, Christian Overland, said it complemented an oral history the museum had already recorded with Wozniak, and praised how Wozniak had built a personal computer with fewer circuits than anyone imagined. In Dearborn it joins the museum's collection of American inventions, a long way from a Los Altos garage.

The numbers

Processor

MOS Technology 6502 at 1.022727 MHz

Memory

4KB RAM, expandable

Launch price

$666.66 (July 1976); Byte Shop paid $500 per board

Production

About 200 units; discontinued October 1977

Survivors

64 known and 15 working (2014 count); 62 to 82 documented (2022 count)

Timeline

1. Aug 11, 1950

   Steve Wozniak is born in San Jose, California.

2. Mar 1, 1976

   Wozniak completes the basic design of the Apple-1.

3. Apr 1, 1976

   Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne form the Apple Computer Company.

4. Jul 1976

   The Apple-1 goes on sale at $666.66.

5. 1976

   Summer: this board is hand-built as one of 50 for the Byte Shop.

6. Apr 1977

   The Apple II is introduced.

7. Oct 1977

   The Apple-1 is officially discontinued.

8. Feb 1979

   The Cincinnati AppleSiders publish their first Poke-Apple newsletter.

9. 1980

   About this year, AppleSiders founder John Anderson acquires the computer.

10. 1989

    Anderson puts the computer under glass.

11. Aug 2014

    Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen boots the computer; it runs.

12. Oct 22, 2014

    It sells at auction in New York for $905,000 to The Henry Ford.

13. Apr 11, 2016

    The Henry Ford puts it on display through April 30 for Apple's 40th anniversary.

The world in 1976

• Jan 18, 1976

  The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in Super Bowl X.

• Mar 27, 1976

  The first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro open.

• May 24, 1976

  Concorde service to Washington, D.C., begins.

• Jul 4, 1976

  The United States celebrates its Bicentennial.

• Jul 20, 1976

  Viking 1 lands on Mars and sends the first close-up color photos of its surface.

• Nov 2, 1976

  Jimmy Carter defeats President Gerald Ford.

• Nov 26, 1976

  Microsoft is registered with the Secretary of State of New Mexico.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Apple-1 Computer (Wozniak-built working unit) is number 73 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (72 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Apple-1 had no case, keyboard or power supply: buyers supplied their own.
• Wozniak offered the design to his employer, Hewlett-Packard, which turned it down five times.
• It plugged into an ordinary television, which saved buyers the cost of a terminal.
• When it was tested in 2014, the screws on its power regulators showed no sign of ever having been heat cycled.
• The sale included VHS tapes of Wozniak's 1980 keynote at an Ohio 'Applevention.'
• The first 50 Apple-1s were sold to the Byte Shop for $500 each.