The Apple I launched in 1976 as a bare circuit board

Apple Computer Company released the Apple I in April 1976. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first units by hand in Jobs's parents' garage in Los Altos, California. The machine was not a finished product the way computers are sold today — it was a circuit board with a processor, memory, and basic components, but no case, no keyboard, and no monitor. A buyer had to add those parts themselves.

The Apple I sold for $666.66. That price covered the circuit board and the components soldered onto it, but nothing else. A person who bought one needed to provide their own keyboard, power supply, and display to actually use it. Only about 200 units were made before Apple moved on to the Apple II in 1977.

The machine used a MOS Technology 6502 processor running at 1 megahertz. It had 4 kilobytes of RAM as standard, though buyers could expand that to 8 or 16 kilobytes. By modern standards, that is an almost unimaginably small amount of memory — a single photograph from a smartphone today is thousands of times larger.

Key Takeaways

  • The Apple I was released in April 1976 and consisted of a circuit board only, requiring the buyer to add a keyboard, monitor, and power supply.
  • The price was $666.66, which was expensive for the time but represented only the core computer components, not a complete system.
  • Fewer than 200 Apple I units were manufactured before the company introduced the Apple II in 1977, which included a case and keyboard.
  • The Apple I used a 1-megahertz processor and came with 4 kilobytes of RAM, making it far less powerful than any device sold today.

Why the Apple I mattered despite its limitations

The Apple I arrived during the era of hobbyist computing. In 1976, computers were room-sized machines owned by universities and large companies. The idea that an individual could own a computer at all was new. The Altair 8800, released in 1975, had pioneered the hobbyist market, but it required buyers to assemble it from a kit and had almost no practical use beyond proving the concept worked.

Wozniak designed the Apple I to be simpler and cheaper to build than competing machines. It was still a hobbyist product — the person buying it needed to understand electronics and be willing to solder components and write their own software — but it was more approachable than what existed before. The machine could run BASIC, a programming language that let users write straightforward programs without deep technical knowledge.

The Apple II changed what a personal computer meant

The Apple II, released in June 1977, was the machine that actually created the personal computer market. Unlike the Apple I, it came in a plastic case, included a keyboard, and had a power supply built in. A buyer could plug it in and start using it when ready. The price was $1,298, which was expensive but not prohibitively so for a small business or a serious hobbyist.

The Apple II had 16 kilobytes of RAM standard and could be expanded to 48 kilobytes. It included a color graphics card and could display text and straightforward images on a television or monitor. Most importantly, it could run VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program, released in 1979. VisiCalc made the Apple II useful for business — accountants and small-business owners could suddenly do calculations and forecasting on a machine they owned, rather than renting time on a mainframe.

The Apple II line remained in production for 16 years, with updated versions released throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. It became the dominant personal computer in schools and small offices, and it established Apple as a computer manufacturer rather than a one-product curiosity.

How the Apple I compares to what came before

The Altair 8800, released by MITS in 1975, is usually called the first personal computer. It cost $397 as a kit or $498 fully assembled. However, it had no keyboard, no monitor, and no way to input or output information except by flipping switches on the front panel and reading lights. It was genuinely a hobbyist project — you built it to prove you could, not because it did anything useful.

The Commodore PET, released by Commodore in August 1977, was closer to the Apple II in concept. It came in a case with a keyboard and a built-in monitor, all for $795. It was cheaper than the Apple II and arguably more complete, but it had less expandability and less software support. The Apple II's advantage was not that it was first or cheapest, but that it attracted software developers and became the platform where useful programs got written.

What you could actually do with an Apple I

An Apple I owner in 1976 could write and run programs in BASIC. The machine could display text on a monitor or television. It could store programs and data on a cassette tape recorder — the standard storage method before floppy disks became common. Beyond that, there was almost nothing to do with it. There were no games, no business software, no educational programs. The appeal was entirely to people who wanted to learn programming or prove they could build a computer.

The machine had no disk drive, no printer port, and no way to connect to other computers. If you wanted to share a program with someone else, you had to hand them a cassette tape and hope the recording quality was good enough to load without errors. This was not a limitation unique to Apple — it was the state of personal computing in 1976.

The price of early Apple computers in context

The Apple I cost $666.66 in 1976. Adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars, that is roughly $3,500. However, that comparison is misleading because the machine was not complete — you still needed to buy a keyboard, monitor, and power supply, which could easily add another $500 to $1,000 to the total cost. A fully functional Apple I system cost somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500 in 1976 dollars, or roughly $5,000 to $6,200 in 2024 dollars.

The Apple II at $1,298 in 1977 was a more complete system, though you still needed to buy a monitor separately. In 2024 dollars, that is roughly $6,500. For comparison, a basic laptop computer today costs $400 to $800 and is millions of times more powerful.

Why the Apple I is still remembered

The Apple I matters historically because it was the first product from a company that would eventually dominate personal computing. It also represents a moment when computers stopped being exclusively the property of large institutions. The machine itself was not revolutionary — Wozniak's engineering was elegant, but the Altair 8800 had already proven the concept. What mattered was that Apple followed the Apple I with the Apple II, which was actually useful, and then built a company around making computers that ordinary people could buy and use.

Today, original Apple I circuit boards are valuable to collectors. A working Apple I can sell for $200,000 to $500,000 at auction, depending on condition and provenance. Only about 50 to 100 original units are believed to still exist. Most were either discarded or cannibalized for parts decades ago.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak invent the computer?

No. They founded Apple Computer Company and designed the Apple I, but computers existed for decades before that. The Apple I was one of the first personal computers — machines small and affordable enough for individuals to own — but it was not the first computer ever built.

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

Not in 1976. There was no business software, no games, and no practical applications. It was a machine for people who wanted to learn programming or experiment with computing. The Apple II, released a year later, was the first Apple machine that could run software useful for business or education.

How much would an Apple I cost if you bought one today?

You cannot buy a new Apple I — production ended in 1976. Original units that still work sell at auction for $200,000 to $500,000, depending on condition. That price reflects rarity and historical value, not the cost of the components.

Why did the Apple I not have a keyboard or monitor included?

In 1976, keyboards and monitors were expensive separate components. Including them would have doubled or tripled the price. Hobbyist computer buyers were expected to already own a monitor or television and to add a keyboard themselves. The Apple II changed this approach by including both.

How powerful was the Apple I compared to computers today?

A modern smartphone is roughly one million times more powerful than an Apple I. The Apple I had 4 kilobytes of RAM; a smartphone has 4 to 8 gigabytes. The processor ran at 1 megahertz; modern processors run at 2,000 to 3,000 megahertz. The comparison is so extreme that it is almost meaningless.