The machine was “one of the 50 computers made by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) founder and big boss Steve Jobs in his garage in 1976.” While Jobs may have been responsible for the construction it was Steve Wozniak who designed the Apple 1 in 1975 and it had the distinction of being the “first” time that someone typed on a keyboard and immediately saw the keystroke on a monitor.
Apple 1 Computer: Well above anticipated sale price
The computer in hammer came down at $750,000 (but the commission pushed it to $905,000) in an auction that was held in New York at Bonham’s in a sale titled “History of Science” which also saw a Charles Darwin’s letter to a colleague, a vintage electrical keyboard, a 1905 Helmholtz sound synthesizer and other items sold yesterday.
And the lucky buyer? The Henry Ford organization, which plans to display the computer in its museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
Apple 1 Computer: Mint condition and working
“What we love about it is that it’s still operational, which is really rare,” said Mooradian. “We really feel like we got a great artifact for our collection.”
“This is a great representation of our culture’s introduction into personal computing,” she added.
Mike Willegas who runs the Apple-1 registry, there are only three Apple 1s in the world and only 15 have been operated in the last 15 years.