The story of the Apple I is the perfect origin myth—a blend of genius, salesmanship, and rebellious fun. It was the crucial first step from hobbyist dream to global corporation, a feat achieved by the unique partnership of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

🍎 The Birth of the Apple I: Key Facts and Dates

The true brilliance of the Apple I lay in Wozniak’s ability to use a fraction of the components of competing machines. This efficiency made the machine both affordable and groundbreakingly simple.

• The Funding: To finance their venture, Jobs sold his Volkswagen Kombi van, and Wozniak parted with his prized HP-65 programmable calculator. They raised around $1,300.

• The Launch: On April 1, 1976, Apple Computer Company was officially founded. The Apple I circuit board was completed and demonstrated shortly thereafter at the Homebrew Computer Club.

• The First Sale: Jobs secured their first major order for 50 fully assembled boards from Paul Terrell, the owner of The Byte Shop, one of the first personal computer retail stores.

• The Price Tag: The retail price was set at $666.66. Wozniak reportedly chose the repeating digits because he liked the pattern, and it represented a one-third markup on their wholesale cost.

• The Product: It was sold as a bare motherboard with around 30 chips. Crucially, it was one of the first microcomputers to feature a video interface and on-board ROM (Read-Only Memory), meaning users could power it on and start programming immediately—a massive leap forward. Users still had to provide their own case, power supply, and keyboard/monitor.

🤣 The Lighter Side: Pranks and Playful Rivalry

Before they were tech moguls, Jobs and Wozniak were electronics enthusiasts and master pranksters, constantly one-upping each other and the world around them.

The Zaltair Prank

The tale of the phantom competitor is one of Wozniak’s masterpieces, demonstrating his cleverness and love of mischief.

• The Setup: At a computer conference, Wozniak created a detailed, elaborate, and entirely fictional product brochure for a computer called the “Zaltair.” He made up a fake programming language called "BAZIC" and gave the machine fantastical, superlative descriptions. The name "Zaltair" was a play on the Altair 8800, the machine that ignited the personal computer movement.

• Jobs’ Reaction: Steve Jobs, ever the competitive strategist, was completely taken in. He spent a significant amount of time trying to uncover this shadowy, formidable rival that threatened to upstage Apple.

• The Punchline: Wozniak kept the secret going. It wasn't until 1985, nine years after the prank, that he finally revealed the truth. He presented Jobs with a framed copy of the original Zaltair brochure as a birthday gift. The revelation, years in the making, highlights the enduring, unique nature of their friendship.

The Blue Box Days

Long before the Apple I, the duo financed their early adventures by building and selling "blue boxes"—illegal electronic devices that mimicked the tones used by phone companies to make free long-distance calls. This early collaboration cemented their roles: Wozniak the engineer (who built the sophisticated circuit) and Jobs the seller (who found the customers).

• The Vatican Call: Wozniak famously used a blue box to call the Vatican, pretending to be then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and requested to speak to the Pope. While he got through to a high-ranking official, the Pope was reportedly asleep and couldn't be disturbed.

🌍 The Legacy: A Volkswagen for the Mind

The Apple I was far more than a limited-run circuit board; it was a philosophical statement that changed the world.

• Democratization of Computing: Before the Apple I, computing was restricted to large corporations and government institutions using giant, expensive mainframes. The Apple I and, more successfully, the Apple II (released in 1977), put computing power into the hands of ordinary individuals, pioneering the idea of the personal computer.

• The Open Architecture: Against the more polished vision of Jobs, Wozniak insisted on having eight expansion slots in the Apple II (the successor to the I). This decision was crucial: it allowed countless third-party companies to create peripherals like memory cards and disk drives, dramatically increasing the computer's usefulness and creating an entire ecosystem that fueled Apple’s early growth and saved the company.

• Visionary Statement: As Jobs once said, "Basically, Steve Wozniak and I invented the Apple because we wanted a personal computer... We needed a Volkswagen. The Volkswagen isn't as fast or comfortable as other ways of traveling, but the VW owners can go where they want, when they want and with whom they want. The VW owners have personal control of their car." The Apple I was the first, raw expression of this core belief: "Power to the People" via technology.