The first Apple computer, hand-built by founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak was sold at an auction in the US for $400,000 on Tuesday. The 45-year-old computer was designed, built, and tested by Wozniak and Jobs with help from two others.
It is also known as “Chaffey College Apple-1″ because its original owner was a professor at Chaffey College. He ended up selling the Apple-1 computer to his student in 1977 so that he could buy an Apple-II computer. The student — who has not been named — paid just $650 for it at the time.
The Apple-1 computer is one of about 60 units still in existence and is one of the 20 still functioning. Apple-1 came as motherboards with cases, keyboards and monitors sold separately. The model is encased in koa wood — a richly patinated wood native to Hawaii. Only a handful of the original 200 were made in this way.
Jobs and Wozniak mostly sold Apple-1s as component parts. One computer shop that took delivery of around 50 units decided to encase some of them in wood.
Apple raced to success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but foundered after the departure of Jobs and Wozniak. The company was reinvigorated in the late 1990s, and Jobs was brought back into the fold as the chief executive. He oversaw the launch of the iPod, and later the iPhones, before his death in 2011.
*
* Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.
