"Apple's founders were true kids of the Valley -- college dropouts who
plugged state-of-the-art semiconductors into a board, wired them
together, and created a rudimentary computer that almost anyone could
afford. Their enterprise was an outgrowth of the computer hobbyist
culture..." (Rose 25)
In their spare time, with Wozniak doing most of the technical work and Jobs' parents providing their garage workshop, they made a computer they called the Apple I in March of 1976. Even though it didn't have a keyboard, screen, or even a case, they first showed it off at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto. The Homebrew Computer Club was an organization for those who enjoyed soldering little resistors and chips onto a circuit board and calling it a computer. On April Fools Day, Jobs and Woz started the Apple Computer Company. Jobs sold his VW van and Woz his HP programmable calculator to finance production of the Apple I. The Byte Shop, a computer store, quickly ordered fifty of them. Later that year, in July, the Apple I board was released to hobbyists at the price of $666.66. By December, the Apple I boards were being sold at 10 retail stores across the United States.
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In 1977, Mike Markkula, a 30-year-old retired millionaire from Intel(1), financially helped found Apple, as it was becoming incorporated. Michael Scott, a friend from his days at Intel, soon became the president. Apple's Headquarters moved to Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino. Also that year, the Apple II was released. It featured color graphics, a keyboard, power supply, attractive case, 4K of memory(2), game paddles, and a demo cassette. People often used TV sets for monitors and audio tape players as expanded memory. It was released at $1,298. As monthly orders were reaching $1 million, Rob Janoff designed the Apple logo we see today. |