© Mark Ollig
On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer in a single-story house at 2066 Crist Drive, Los Altos, CA, the boyhood family home of Steve Jobs.
Urban legend says Apple Computer started in the family garage; however, in a 2014 interview, co-founder Steve Wozniak said, “The garage didn’t serve much purpose, except it was something for us to feel was our home.”
He added, “We had no money. You have to work out of your home when you have no money.”
On April 11, 1976, the company’s first Apple computer, built on an assembled circuit board and designed by Wozniak, was released.
“Byte into an Apple” was an advertising catchphrase thought of by Wozniak when the first Apple Computer “low-cost microcomputer system” went on sale for $666.66 ($3,348.94 in 2022 dollars).
Apple Computer manufactured about 200 of these computers, later known as the Apple I.
Recently, I listened to a radio interview with Steve Wozniak, also known as The Woz, where he talked about his early involvement with Apple Computer and the creation of the Apple I.
He recalled his early fascination with studying electronics and aptitude for math and science in grade school and his obsession with computer projects and ham radios during fifth and sixth grade.
In high school, Wozniak designed hundreds of computers, changing the design for each, creating a new computer on paper using fewer and fewer computing chips.
He did this as a game, not realizing he would use these computer design engineering skills in his future work.
In 1975, Wozniak, along with his friend Steve Jobs, were members of an organization of computing hobbyists called the Homebrew Computer Club, located in today’s Silicon Valley in California.
The Homebrew Computer Club met every two weeks.
Wozniak gave a working presentation of the computer he designed and built during one of their meetings.
What made this computer unique were features incorporated into it not found on other hobbyist computers available at the time.
The computer Wozniak built contained a keyboard for the user to type information instead of physically flipping toggle switches like one would do when using the Altair 8800 computer, which during this time was a popular hobbyist computer.
A person using Wozniak’s computer typed programming code information on a keyboard. The coding input and computer output would be viewable on a television screen attached to the computer’s video terminal.
During the interview, Wozniak spoke in a somewhat broken sentence saying, “When I built this Apple I … and sort of the first keyboard . . . [I felt] the first computer should look like a typewriter. So it should have a keyboard. And the output device is the TV set.”
The computer screen he used was a Sears portable color television brought from his home for the demonstration. Wozniak wired the connections from a cable he ran from the tv to the computer circuitry board.
Wozniak then attached another wired cable end to the circuit chips on the computer’s component circuitry board (breadboard) and the small character coding input keyboard he designed.
He admitted wanting to impress the people watching him give the demonstration.
What Wozniak assembled to demonstrate at the Homebrew Computer Club eventually became the first Apple computer.
“I want to take credit for having done some very, very good things, some very good designs and software that was art like Mozart would do,” Wozniak said.
Wozniak explained how every computer before the Apple 1 included a front panel that looked like a piece of bland network switching equipment.
He wanted the design of the first Apple computer to look unique.
Wozniak noted from the time when the Apple I came out, every new computer since then has had a keyboard, and he takes credit for it.
“. . . yeah, my idea, so I started passing out the schematics and the code listings for that computer, telling everyone here it is. It’s small, and it’s simple, it’s inexpensive; build your own,” Wozniak explained.
He had no thoughts about starting a company until Steve Jobs told him, “You know, people are interested; why don’t we start a company?”
“He had more of the future vision. We can bring this to everyone; start a company; sell it,” Wozniak said about Steve Jobs.
Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer with Jobs and Wayne, and thus the birth of the first affordable “personal” computer company was born.
Jobs was more involved with company issues, while Wozniak worked on computer design and invention, including the Apple I, Apple II, and Apple III computer. Ronald Wayne provided administrative oversight.
An October 1976 advertisement for the first Apple “Low-Cost Microcomputer System” can be seen at https://bit.ly/35eIrb6.
In his 2006 autobiography, Wozniak explains how Apple got its name: “Steve [Jobs] suggested a name – Apple Computer. We both tried to come up with technical-sounding names that were better, but we couldn’t think of any good ones. Apple was so much better.”
In 2021, 45 years after it began, Apple’s worldwide total net sales amounted to $365.82 billion.
Starting Apple Computer has unquestionably proved not to be an April Fools’ Day hoax.
Speaking of April Fool’s Day, have you seen the London Italian restaurant photo of the bountiful harvest gathered from the spaghetti trees grown in Switzerland?
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| 2066 Crist Drive, Los Altos, CA |
