ers would become as common and as useful as telephones. Every
person would have at least one. At the time, this was considered
a wild idea. But Jobs firmly believed in his vision, and he had a
plan to achieve it.
He was convinced that if Apple could build fully assembled,
easy to use computers the company would change the world.
Jobs explains:
The Apple I took us over a big hurdle, but a lot of people
who wanted to use the product were unable to. We were
getting some feedback from a fairly small sample—maybe
40, 50 people. We were hearing from dealers too. They’d
say, “I think I can sell 10 times more of these if you would
just put a case and keyboard around it.” That’s what a lot of
the direction for Apple II came from. If there hadn’t been
an Apple I, there would not have been an Apple II. The
first product solved some of the problems and exposed the
remaining ones in a much clearer light. But we were going
on common sense. . . . We were thinking we should build a
computer you could just roll out of the box. 38
Presentation, Design, and
Marketing
Jobs and Wozniak showed Apple I and a mock-up for Apple II
at the Personal Computer Festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in
the summer of 1976. It was the machine’s first national exposure.
Their display, which was perched on a wobbly old card table in a
dark corner, garnered little attention. The experience made a big
impression on Jobs. He realized that if they were going to sell their
computers to everyone, not just hobbyists, presentation, design,
and marketing were important. With this in mind, he insisted
that Apple II be self-contained, meaning it would come with a
monitor, case, and keyboard, and that it be small, lightweight,
quiet, and attractive. He wanted it to look like a household appli-
ance that the average person would feel comfortable using. To this
“We Will Have a Company”
47