The chaotic tangle of electronics in the image is considered a masterpiece to this day — and a unit like this recently sold for $945,000.
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These hardware components are the Apple I, one of the first personal computers ever manufactured.
It was designed and built primarily by Steve Wozniak, in the garage of Steve Jobs's parents' home.
To fund the assembly, Wozniak sold his HP calculator and Jobs sold his Volkswagen van.
The partnership continued from there, with Wozniak as the technical genius who designed the computer and Jobs as the marketing genius who sold it.
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Approximately 200 units were produced, with 50 of them destined for a retailer called the Byte Shop. The retail price was $666.66 — not only because it looks elegant, but also because it was exactly 30% above the wholesale price paid by the Byte Shop.
Today, only an estimated 50–60 units are believed to survive, and their value continues to climb with each passing year.
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Although its hardware specs look utterly laughable by today's standards, it represented a technological breakthrough in many respects.
Wozniak's design philosophy focused on squeezing maximum capability out of minimum hardware and cost.
The model delivered on that goal: with an inexpensive processor, a built-in display interface, and an abundance of expansion slots, the computer could be easily adapted to a wide range of uses.
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Although Apple has become something of a religion and guards its principles zealously, the expansion-slot approach has vanished entirely.
In the early days, Jobs believed users should be able to modify their computer's hardware with ease — opening the case and upgrading components were simple, accessible tasks.
Today, Apple solders its components firmly in place and makes opening its products nearly impossible. This is driven not only by a commitment to design advantages and user experience, but also by a desire to charge a significant premium on every upgrade.
Judging by Apple's market capitalization, that approach seems to be working just fine.