The Apple I was Apple's first computer, released in 1976

Apple Computer Company's first machine was the Apple I, a single-board computer that Steve Wozniak designed and Steve Jobs helped bring to market. It shipped in July 1976 for $666.66. The Apple I was not the first personal computer ever made—the Altair 8800 came out in 1975—but it was one of the first to come fully assembled and ready to use, which made it different from the kit computers hobbyists had to build themselves.

The Apple I had 4 kilobytes of RAM, a MOS Technology 6502 processor running at 1 megahertz, and no monitor, keyboard, or case included. Buyers had to supply their own display and input devices. About 200 units sold before Apple moved on to the Apple II in 1977, which became the machine that actually turned the company into a household name.

Key Takeaways

  • The Apple I was released in July 1976 and cost $666.66, designed entirely by Steve Wozniak as a single-board computer.
  • It came fully assembled but required the buyer to provide a monitor, keyboard, and case, unlike kit computers of the era.
  • The Apple I had 4 kilobytes of RAM and a 1-megahertz processor, which was respectable for 1976 but became obsolete quickly.
  • Only about 200 Apple I units sold before the Apple II launched in 1977 and became Apple's breakthrough product.
  • The Apple I proved that a fully assembled personal computer could sell, even though the Apple II is what made Apple a major company.

Why Wozniak designed the Apple I in the first place

Steve Wozniak built the Apple I to show off at the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of electronics hobbyists in the San Francisco Bay Area who met regularly to share designs and swap parts. At the time, most personal computers were sold as kits—you bought the circuit board and components separately and had to solder them together yourself. Wozniak wanted to prove that a hobbyist could design a working computer that was simpler and cheaper than what companies were selling.

Jobs saw the machine and recognized that some people would pay for a computer that arrived ready to plug in. He convinced Wozniak to start a company, and they began assembling Apple I boards in Jobs's parents' garage in Los Altos, California. They funded the first batch by selling Jobs's Volkswagen and Wozniak's calculator. The pair incorporated Apple Computer Company on April 1, 1976.

What the Apple I could actually do

The Apple I was a bare-bones machine by any standard. It had no storage—no disk drive, no tape drive, nothing. Programs and data had to be entered by hand using a keyboard, and anything you created disappeared when you turned it off. There was no operating system in the modern sense; it ran a straightforward BASIC interpreter that let you write and run programs in the BASIC programming language.

The machine could display text on a monitor or television set, and it had an audio cassette interface that theoretically let you save programs to a tape recorder, though the reliability was poor. For a hobbyist or student learning to program, it was enough. For practical work, it was nearly useless. The Apple I found its audience among people who wanted to tinker with code and electronics, not among people who needed to get work done.

How the Apple II changed everything

The Apple II, released in April 1977, was a completely different product. It came in a plastic case, included a keyboard, had color graphics, and could use a floppy disk drive for storage. It shipped with a BASIC interpreter built into ROM, so you could start programming when ready. The design was cleaner, the machine was more powerful, and it looked like a finished product rather than a hobbyist project.

The Apple II became the first personal computer to achieve significant commercial success. By 1980, it was the best-selling personal computer in the United States. The Apple I is remembered as the proof of concept, but the Apple II is what made Apple a company that mattered. Without the Apple I, there would have been no Apple II, but without the Apple II, Apple would likely have disappeared into history alongside dozens of other early computer makers.

The Apple I's place in computing history

The Apple I is historically important because it demonstrated that a single engineer could design a functional personal computer and that a small company could manufacture and sell them. It proved the market existed. But it was not a commercial success in its own right—it was a stepping stone.

Today, original Apple I boards are valuable to collectors. A few dozen are known to exist, and they sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auction. The machine itself is not particularly impressive by modern standards or even by the standards of 1977. What makes it significant is that it was the first product from a company that would eventually reshape personal computing, and it showed that Wozniak and Jobs understood what customers actually wanted: a computer that worked out of the box.

Why the Apple I mattered more than its sales numbers suggest

The Apple I sold only about 200 units, which is tiny compared to the Apple II's eventual sales in the hundreds of thousands. But those 200 units proved something important: people would buy a fully assembled personal computer if the price was reasonable and it actually worked. Before the Apple I, the assumption in the industry was that personal computers had to be kits because that was cheaper and because hobbyists wanted to build them themselves.

Wozniak and Jobs showed that assumption was wrong. By the time the Apple II arrived, the market was ready for a computer that came complete and ready to use. That insight, proven by the Apple I, became the foundation of Apple's entire business model. Every Apple product since has followed the same principle: sell a finished, integrated product rather than components or kits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was the Apple I really the first personal computer?

No. The Altair 8800 came out in 1975, about a year earlier. The IMSAI 8080 and other machines also preceded the Apple I. What made the Apple I different was that it came fully assembled, whereas most earlier personal computers were sold as kits that buyers had to build themselves.

Could you actually use an Apple I to do real work?

Not really. It had no storage, no operating system, and no practical software. It was useful for learning to program in BASIC or for hobbyists experimenting with electronics, but it could not run business applications or do anything that required saving data between sessions.

How much would an Apple I cost in today's money?

The original price was $666.66 in 1976. Adjusted for inflation, that is roughly $3,500 in 2024 dollars. However, that price did not include a monitor, keyboard, or case, so the total cost to a buyer was higher.

Why did Apple move so quickly from the Apple I to the Apple II?

The Apple I proved the concept worked, but it had serious limitations that made it impractical for most users. The Apple II addressed those problems by adding color graphics, a keyboard, a case, and the ability to use a floppy disk drive. Jobs and Wozniak understood that the real market was not hobbyists but people who wanted a usable computer.

Are there any Apple I computers still in existence?

Yes, a few dozen original Apple I boards are known to survive. Most are in museums or private collections. They are extremely rare and valuable to collectors because so few were made and so many were discarded or cannibalized for parts over the decades.