​​Long before the iPod, the iPhone and
the black turtlenecks, there was this: the
Apple-1 personal computer.
This working model of the rare machine was
sold by late Apple founder Steve Jobs right
out of his parents garage in 1976 for $600.
Now it's about to go on sale at auction and
is expected to fetch more than half a million dollars.
The so-called Ricketts Apple-1 Personal Computer,
named after original owner Charles Ricketts,
is the only known machine of that model documented
to have been directly sold by Jobs from his
family home in Los Altos, California.
And as original co-founder of Apple Ron Wayne
explains, the creation of the Apple 1 was
a historic milestone in personal computing.
It was monumental, because until that time,
Jobs and Wozniak had been members, participants
in a computer club where they took business
machines and took bits and pieces and distilled
them down into personal computer application.
But not very efficiently. And what Woz did
was to sit down and design an extremely efficient
circuit specifically arranged to serve as
a personal computer. This had never been done
before. And while it was very low-powered,
incredibly low-power, nonetheless it was a
machine focused for personal use. The first
time it had ever been done and that was the
basis of it.
The Ricketts Apple-1 will be sold as part
of Christie's inaugural 'Exceptional Sale'
in New York later this month.
