Apple This

It’s hard to imagine that Apple, arguably the biggest name in technology in the world, started out with humble beginnings nearly 40 years ago. The very first computer ever produced by the company, known today as the Apple-1, forever changed the face of the computer and technology industries. Having a working Apple-1 today seems almost unfathomable, but alas one was recently sold at an auction for a record-breaking $905,000.

The Apple-1 was sold by Bonhams Auction House in New York to The Henry Ford, which has plans to put the computer on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The $905,000 price tag isn’t the exact price of the Apple-1. The real price was only $750,000. But when you add Bonham’s $175,000 commission and taxes, the total came out to$905,000. This easily beat the record of $671,000 for another working Appl-1 that was sold bac  in May 2013.

The Apple-1, by today’s standards, is little more than a standalone circuit board. The device was hand-built, however, by Apple o-Founder Steve Wozniak back in 1976 and is quite possibly one of the first full lot of 50, according to Bonhams. Bonhams had brought in a pair of antique computer specialists to evaluate the computer with one stating that it was in “superb overall condition with no apparent modifications performed or removed.”

The very first batch of computers was purchased from Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs by Byte Shop of Mountain View, California in 1976. Each of the computers was sold for $666.66 and approximately 200 were produced, though maintainer of the Apple-1 Registry Mike Willegas has tracked only 60 survivors. Moreover, as few as 15, including the one sold by Bonhams, are known to be in working condition.

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The Apple-1 purchased by Ford came with a keyboard, a power supply in a small wooden case, two vintage cassette tape decks an old monitor and various documents. According to Bonhams, the Apple-1 had been owned by John Anderson, founder of the AppleSiders of Cincinnati user group, which still meets. Anderson acquired the computer back in 1980.

Other Apple-1 computers that have gone at auctions in the past couple of years have seen prices range from one sold in June 2012 for $374,500 to one sold in November of that same year for $640,000. However staggering the $950,000 price for this working Apple-1 is, it still pales in comparison to the record-setting piece of Apple memorabilia ever sold. Back in 2011 an executive out of Miami paid an incredible $1.6 million for the original contract that marked the founding of Apple as a company.

To see a working Apple-1 in such good condition is rare so I think it is fitting that the computer will be on display in the Henry Ford Museum, allowing many people to see something that they might otherwise never have the opportunity to see. In the words of the great archaeologist Indiana Jones the Apple-1 “belongs in a museum” and that’s exactly where it is headed.