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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Technologizer's Harry McCracken has unearthed some photographs taken by Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop in Mountain View, California in 1976. At the time, the Byte Shop was one of the only computer stores in the world, and ended up being the first dealer for an upstart company called Apple Computer.

According to Terrell, Jobs and Wozniak came into his shop with the first version of the Apple-1 asking him to sell it to his customers. Here's an early photo of the circuit board hooked up to a keyboard and monitor.

NewImage33.png
They called their machine the Apple-1, and it was a bare board; any buyers would have to solder on the necessary chips themselves, then supply accoutrements such as a power supply, keyboard and display.

Terrell was intrigued, but told Jobs that what he really needed were fully-assembled computers. In fact, if Jobs could come back with an assembled version of the Apple-1, the Byte Shop would buy fifty of them. Jobs did, and the Byte Shop became the first Apple dealer (it eventually offered the Apple-1 in a wooden case with keyboard and power supply).
Terrell eventually paid $500 each for 50 Apple-1's, which history says sold for $666.66 each at retail. There are more pictures, and some additional backstory, at Technologizer.

Article Link: Polaroid Snapshots of the First Apple Computers Ever Made
 

wonderspark

macrumors 68040
Feb 4, 2010
3,048
102
Oregon
Slow news day today Arn?
I was surprised this news never made it to MacRumors. Seems right up Arn's alley.

That said, I think it's a cool image of the first Apple-1. Makes me laugh to see those old commands. I made a map of my neighborhood using BASIC on an Atari 400, and had to load it via a cassette tape, and I thought I was so cool. Perhaps if I'd grown up a little further up the coastline, I would have hung out with Jobs and Wozniak... Probably not... I was too busy geeking out by myself to meet other geeks at the time! :)
 

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2008
1,845
4
According to Terrell, Jobs and Wozniak came into his shop with the first version of the Apple-1 asking him to sell it to his customers.

Terrell was intrigued, but told Jobs that what he really needed were fully-assembled computers. In fact, if Jobs could come back with an assembled version of the Apple-1, the Byte Shop would buy fifty of them. Jobs did, and the Byte Shop became the first Apple dealer (it eventually offered the Apple-1 in a wooden case with keyboard and power supply).

This is the kind of thing that doesn't exist any more in today's world.

These days, you'd have all sorts of regulatory and legal hurdles: you'd need certification for wireless parts, you'd need to invest a significant amount of time in protecting your IP (trademarks), and you'd probably get a fair number of aggressive patent challenges.

You can't just make something and take it to a shop and get it sold to people any more.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,775
7,497
Los Angeles
Did you know that the first image ever displayed on a Macintosh was Scrooge McDuck? You can find that fact and more at folklore.org, the insiders' story site about development of the Mac.
 

markcres

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2006
320
313
UK
Meanwhile in 2012...... We can't buy an Mac desktop from Apple as they are not yet available to order !
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
I want to see a keynote for this!

"Look at how the sun glimmers on the ....errrr.... PCB board. Don't you want to just touch it - with a static discharge strap..."
 

Zmmyt

macrumors 68000
Jan 6, 2005
1,720
773
i find this rather breathtaking...typing away on my Macbook Pro while streaming music from my iPhone to an Express.

and this is actually how it all started.

loving it!
 

Yvan256

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2004
5,080
991
Canada
You think you got back at him with this? Funny ..., but what do i know ... ads are showin', clicks are countin' - all is well in the land of professional journalism.

I think his point was that the original comment didn't add anything to the discussion and neither did his own reply.

And now, your own post didn't add anything and neither did mine. Can we stop discussing the "slow news day" comments? :rolleyes:
 

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
These were neat to look at. I don't care if it isn't news, it sure is cool and beats the hundreds of "I fail at decision making" threads. :D
 

Yvan256

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2004
5,080
991
Canada
I find it sad that people find this kind of news boring. It's the beginning, the roots of Apple. Without that beginning, there probably would not be Macs, iPhones or iPads today. Then again, without Apple, perhaps Commodore would not have stood on their ass and we'd all be using Amiga computers today.

People today only want a new iPhone with a new shape or a bigger screen and they don't even seem to care when it looks exactly the same but everything inside has been upgraded.

But to us nerds, which is the kind of people it takes to build such devices by the way, this kind of news is 1000 times more interesting than hearing about lawsuits or contract deals with heartless media mega-corporations.

If you don't like a story, just don't comment on it or start your own website where you can approve the stories yourself. Anything else is just noise that doesn't add anything to the discussion of the topic.
 
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