COLOGNE, Germany, Oct. 23, 2012/PRNewswire/ --
- Cross reference: Picture is available at epa european pressphoto
agency (http://www.epa.eu) andhttp://www.presseportal.de/pm/107018/ -
It was a classic rags-to-riches story. Two college dropouts from
California who founded the world's highest-valued company. Steve
Jobs was introduced to Steve Wozniak in 1969 and 'Woz' and Jobs
became friends while working for Hewlett-Packard in 1970.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121023/568255 )
By 1976, Wozniak was refining his own computer design. The Altair
8800 had just made the cover ofPopular
Electronics and Jobs quickly realised the potential of
his friend's invention. Apple Inc. was established in April 1976
and the first order of 50 computers was assembled in the Jobs'
family garage and delivered to the Byte Shop for $500 per unit.
Apple I was the first ready-made personal computer. Admittedly, the
buyer still had to provide the keyboard and monitor, but as Wozniak
explained to enthusiasts at the Homebrew Computer Club in July
1976, his design allowed the user to work on a "human-typable
keyboard instead of a stupid, cryptic front panel with a bunch of
lights and switches".
Of the 200 Apple I computers ever produced, just 43 have survived,
and of these only six are in working order ("Apple 1 Registry", by
Mike Willegal). One was sold for a record $374,500 in June 2012 in
New York, a second one of the six is being offered now by Auction
Team Breker in Germany on 24 November 2012.
The Cologne-based auctioneer has been holding record-breaking sales
of "Science and Technology" for 25 years. According to founder Uwe
Breker, this is the first fully working Apple I offered publically
in Europe, and the only example with the original period
peripherals - transformer, Sony monitor and Datanetics ASCII
keyboard - to have appeared so far. He comments "There is a
long-established market for antique ‚Scientific Instruments',
whereas technology from the dawn of the computer age is attracting
a great new generation of collectors."
See http://www.breker.com for
details of the auction and http://www.youtube.com/AuctionTeamBrekerfor
the 7-minute demo-video of the Apple I in action.
In addition to the media attention around Apple products
(especially the early ones), two motion pictures about the life of
Steve Jobs have been announced for the end of the year, one of
which (by Sony Pictures) stars Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.
Contact: Uwe H. Breker, [email protected], Tel.
+49(0)2236-3843420