This is something I was actually really curious about, and I’ve done a lot of research considering Apple’s beginnings. During my journeys I came across some unique prototype photos, and some interesting information regarding the first technologies that the company adapted. But a recent report from Technologizer has got to be the most interesting thing I have seen regarding the subject.
A member of the Technologizer team, Harry McCracken, has apparently unearthed some pretty crazy photographs. The photos in question were taken by Paul Terrell and show what appears to be the first personal computer that Apple ever brought to market, or sold to the general public. But how exactly did Terrel end up with these photos? Turns out he owned a retail space called the Byte Shop back in 1976.
The Mountain View, California, based store was considered to be one of the first and only computer stores in the world, and at that time, a younger Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were looking for a key locale to display their innovative new product. An account from Terrell has Jobs and Wozniak entering his establishment with a simplistic (yet futuristic for its time) piece of hardware.
The machine was called the “Apple-1,” and it wasn’t even an entire PC at the time. The initial hardware consisted of just a bare motherboard. After buying the board itself, customers would have to procure a keyboard, monitor, and power supply, and solder on separately-sold processing chips if they wanted a complete rig.
That was quite an ordeal to go through, if you wanted an Apple PC, but Terrell believed so much in the project that he purchased fifty of the “machines” at around USD$500 apiece. He would stand to make a decent profit though, turning around and selling the parts to consumers for a cool USD$666.66 per unit. Take a good look at the picture above, because this is considered the ancestor that started it all.
Photo Credit: Technologizer
