The original Apple Computer, or the Apple I was first introduced in April of 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto. Steve Wozniak had built the computer while working at HP as an engineer and gathering spare parts, as they were encouraged to do. It was a hobby for “Woz”, but Steve Jobs was sure that the product could be sold and put all his efforts to that direction. The Apple I that is pictured on the home page of the History Of Apple is fully assembled and embellished.
When Apple was founded in 1976, with the
introduction of the Apple I, their only product was
very primitive. The Apple I was first sold as a circuit board only,
like this one on display at the Computer Museum:
It came as a kit with very detailed instructions on how to complete
for $666.66.
There were 500 of these machines produced for the first official sale. There was an original Apple I in the back room at one building in Cupertino that we would go admire from time to time. It didn’t have the nice wooden case like our home page, the mother board was just open air as originally sold. It served as a reminder of how far the company had come and how far it could go.