One of the few remaining original Apple-1 computers, hand-built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, was sold for $400,000 (around P20 million) at an auction in the United States on Nov. 9.
Before it was sold, the great-great-grandfather of today’s MacBooks was expected to fetch over $600,000 in a California auction.
The rare Hawaiian koa wood-cased Apple-1 – still functioning – is one of only 200 made and sold in kit form.The koa wood case of the auctioned model was added by a pioneering early computer retailer, ByteShop, in California, which took delivery of around 50 of the Apple-1 machines.
The auctioned model was a still functioning, rare Hawaiian koa wood-cased Apple-1. Only 200 of these were made by Jobs and Wozniak in 1976 when they began the now-$2 trillion-worth tech company in a garage.
The computer has only had two owners, a college professor and his student to whom he sold the machine for $650, said John Moran Auctioneers in California.
Jobs and Wozniak mostly sold Apple-1s as component parts. One computer shop that took a delivery of around 50 units decided to encase the components in wood, the auction house said.
“This is kind of the holy grail for vintage electronics and computer tech collectors,” Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen told the Los Angeles Times ahead of the bidding. “That really makes it exciting for a lot of people.”
In 1976, the machines were sold for $666.66, reportedly because Wozniak liked repeating numbers.
It is believed there are around 20 such computers in the world still capable of functioning.
Apple found success in the late 1970s and early 1980s but foundered after Jobs and Wozniak left in 1985. The company was reinvigorated in the late 90s when Jobs was brought back to the fold as chief executive.
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