June 5, 1977: The primary Apple II, the non-public laptop that may put Cupertino on the map, goes on sale.
Beforehand proven off to a couple thousand rabid followers on the West Coast Laptop Faire, the Apple II’s arrival means the lots can lastly get their arms on the breakthrough machine. A base unit prices $1,298 — the equal of greater than $6,700 in 2024 cash.
Apple II: A machine forward of its time
Though Apple beforehand made the Apple-1, the Apple II was the corporate’s first laptop that mattered. The Apple-1 by no means bought broadly, or in giant portions. It was at all times meant extra as a enjoyable demo for Steve Wozniak’s Homebrew Laptop Membership buddies than a severe money-spinner.
The Apple II proved completely different. Though customers nonetheless wanted to offer their very own displays, the pc boasted many hallmarks of Apple’s later machines. That began with an attractively machined case designed by Jerry Manock, who later went on to provide the primary Macintosh. (For individuals who simply couldn’t get out of the hacker mindset, Apple additionally made a circuit board-only version of the Apple II obtainable.)
Coloration graphics, plus nice specs for that period
From a specs perspective, the Apple II was forward of its time. Most notably, this meant colour graphics. It additionally boasted a whopping 1MHz MOS Expertise 6502 processor, built-in keyboard, built-in BASIC programming atmosphere, expandable reminiscence from 4K as much as 48K, eight growth slots and a sound card.
Prospects additionally received an audio cassette interface for loading applications and storing knowledge. A yr later, Apple debuted its enormously profitable Disk II drive. This profitable accent let customers substitute their audio cassettes with much-faster floppy disks.
As Wozniak wrote in Byte journal across the time of the Apple II’s debut: “To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use and inexpensive.”
Apple II turns into a large hit for Apple
Photograph: Apple
Quickly after its launch on this present day in 1977, the Apple II grew to become a large hit for Apple. The yr it debuted, it introduced in $770,000 in income. That determine elevated to $7.9 million the next yr, and an enormous $49 million the yr after that.
Regardless of efforts to exchange it with machines just like the ill-fated Apple III and (extra efficiently) the Macintosh, demand remained extremely sturdy for the Apple II for greater than a decade. Actually, Apple continued producing up to date variations till November 1993.
A particularly influential early private laptop
The groundbreaking laptop introduced a lot of vital gamers into the world of excessive tech, too. These included Mitch Kapor, founding father of Lotus Growth Company and co-founder of the Digital Frontier Basis, and John Carmack, the legendary coder behind smash-hit video games Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake.
The pc additionally earned Apple its first “killer app,” within the type of the important spreadsheet program VisiCalc.
As many wonderful computer systems as Cupertino has launched over time, it’s unlikely that any — with the attainable exception of the unique Macintosh — will ever present the identical capacity to reshape the pc business because the Apple II did.