Before the iPad or the iPhone, before the iPod or even the Macintosh, a pair of Steves created what would be the first model in a long line of Apple computers. One of those computers has become the most expensive Apple computer in the world.
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs met in 1971, when the latter was only 16 years old. Five years later, Jobs was able to convince a local computer store to buy fifty preassembled computers for the price of $500 each and, based on that purchase order, managed to convince a local hardware supplier to credit him the parts he needed to assemble the fifty computers. The two Steves assembled the fifty computers in time to pay off their credit and the Apple I went on sale for a marked up price of $666.66.
Apple Computer, Inc. went on to produce approximately 150 more Apple I computers before introducing the Apple II. It is considered the first commercially available personal computer, as computer hobbyists at the time usually had to purchase the parts and assemble them on their own.
The Apple I came with 4 KB of memory, which could be expanded to up to 48 KB, and a 1 MHz CPU. Users still needed to supply their own keyboard and monitor—in this case, oddly enough, a television set.
An original Apple I went on sale at Christie’s in London in November, 2010. The computer, model number 82, sold for over $210,000.
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