Apple II

The Apple I

One man was an engineer, the other a dreamer. Together they changed the history of computing, one home at a time. On this episode of Icons, we take a bite into the history of Apple II.

The genius of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs first collided in the Home Brew Computer Club in Menlo Park, California. Though they'd attended the same high school and previously been introduced by a mutual friend, it was the computer club that eventually brought them to collaborate on a project. The duo designed a small computer with a keyboard and a tv screen to show off to the club; this pc soon became the prototype for Apple I, which they released to the public on April Fool's Day of 1976 for the cost of $666.66.

Within a year, two competitors were released, but Wozniak and Jobs already had a new product of their own: the Apple II. Envisioned by Wozniak as a computer that would revolutionize both the home computing and game markets, the Apple II featured speakers, paddles, and a sleek, sexy exterior.

The first Apple II's were shipped out in June 1977 and retailed for $1298 each. Jobs and Wozniak knew marketing the personal computer would be tricky; consumers couldn't fathom why they would possibly have the need for a computer sitting on a desk.

Initial sales weren't bad, but two new features eventually skyrocketed demand for the new system: the introduction of an affordable disk drive and the release of the first spreadsheet software program, VisiCalc.

By 1980, there were close to 300,000 Apple II users and over 1,000 Apple employees. An improved Apple II Plus was on store shelves as the latest in a line of ways to repackage essentially the same machine to try to make it more friendly to consumers in one way or another.