In 1976, The Apple 1 computer went on sale for a retail price of $666.66. Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and designed that product, remembers the early days.
1976The Apple I computer goes on sale for a retail price of $666.66.
You said you saw a revolution coming. Do you think Steve Jobs did?
He had always spoken about wanting to be a person that moves the world forward, but he couldn’t really create things and design them like I could. Steve wanted a company real badly. His thinking was not necessarily about what computers would do for the average Joe in the average home. Steve found the words that explained what these computers would do for people and how important it was a little later in life.
You mentioned you didn’t like conflict. Did Steve like conflict?
Steve was going to make sure that his position was strong and forceful and heard by others. Thankfully he had the best brain. He usually had a little, tiny suggestion, but almost always he was right.
How many computers did you sell?
We only sold about a hundred Apple I’s. Of the Apple II’s, we probably sold a few thousand through the first year. And then [we designed] a spreadsheet program that let small businessmen do more work in one hour than they could do in 10 years with pencil and paper. Sales shot up. It was maybe five years before we sold a million—the first computer ever to sell a million.
Did you think Apple would become a behemoth?
When we started the company, I knew that the computer was so far ahead of anything the rest of the world had ever seen. We knew we had a revolution. Everyone who joined Apple, this was the greatest thing in their life.
Read more:
Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Steve Wozniak on Apple, the Computer Revolution, and Working With Steve Jobs
