The First Apple Computer
Starting a new company was not easy, especially for two young
men whose only business experience was selling illegal blue
boxes. They had to come up with enough money to produce
the computers, which they named Apple I. So, Jobs sold his van
for $1,000, while Wozniak sold his calculator for $250. Jobs
also took a job at the local mall, which required him to dress
up as characters from Alice in Wonderland and shake customers’
hands.
The two planned to build fifty printed circuit boards in all.
Then Jobs got an order for fifty fully assembled computers from
a local electronics store worth $25,000. The store’s owner, Paul
Terrell, had seen Wozniak demonstrating his invention at a
Homebrew Club meeting. He liked what he saw and told Jobs
to stay in touch. Jobs’s idea of staying in touch was going to
Terrell’s store the very next morning. Terrell was not enthusiastic
about stocking just the circuit boards, but he thought he could
sell fully assembled computers. Even though this was not their
original plan, Jobs took the order. “That was the biggest single
episode in the company’s history,” explains Wozniak. “Nothing
in subsequent years was so great and so unexpected. It was not
what we had intended to do.” 35
The Apple I computer was sold for $666.66 in 1976.
“We Will Have a Company”
43