Apple II
With the release of the Apple II in 1977, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were no longer content to tinker in a garage—they wanted to reach the mass market. Their first consumer machine bore no resemblance to the electronic kits cluttering computer clubs at the time. Gone were the bare motherboards and makeshift cases: the Apple II came in an elegant beige plastic housing with an integrated keyboard, ready to use right out of the box.
Wozniak designed the architecture around the 6502 microprocessor, cheaper than the Intel 8080 that powered its competitors. His technical genius shows through in the simplicity of the circuit board, where each component finds its place with remarkable economy of means. The machine started with 4 KB of RAM, expandable to 48 KB, and came with Integer BASIC built directly into ROM. But what immediately stands out is the native support for color graphics and sound. Wozniak had actually developed these features with a specific goal in mind: programming Breakout in BASIC.
Jobs focused on marketing and design. He categorically refused metal cases that made computers look like industrial equipment. Jerry Manock designed a molded plastic housing with rounded corners and that characteristic beveled shape that would become Apple’s visual signature. The device had to fit into a living room like any television set.
Sales began in June 1977 at $1,298 for the base configuration. Success exceeded expectations. Individuals, schools, and small businesses competed for the machine. The open architecture with its eight expansion slots facilitated upgrades: additional memory, various interfaces, disk controllers. A complete ecosystem of third-party manufacturers developed.
With the arrival of the Disk II floppy drive in 1978, Wozniak hit a home run: for $495, his creation offered 113 KB of storage on 5.25-inch diskettes. The DOS operating system, in its successive versions 3.1, 3.2, and then 3.3, simplified file management. This reliable and affordable solution definitively opened the doors of the professional market to the Apple II.
The year 1979 would be remembered. Apple released the Apple II Plus, which replaced Integer BASIC with the more sophisticated Applesoft BASIC in ROM, featuring floating-point numbers. Standard memory jumped to 48 KB. But most importantly, VisiCalc appeared. This first spreadsheet in history revolutionized computer use in business. Many bought an Apple II solely to run VisiCalc.
The Apple IIe of 1983, the true star of the lineup, had 64 KB of RAM expandable to 128 KB and an 80-column display, making it a credible office productivity tool. The full keyboard with lowercase letters facilitated text entry. Compatibility with existing software was total, ensuring longevity of software investments.
Apple took a gamble on compactness with the Apple IIc in 1984. This integrated model with a built-in floppy drive targeted homes and schools. Abandoning expansion slots in favor of standardized ports simplified usage but limited upgradability. Its polished design earned it several aesthetic awards, a first for Apple.
The swan song came with the Apple IIGS in 1986. Its 16-bit processor was compatible with the 6502, its graphics and sound capabilities were impressive, and its interface drew inspiration from the Macintosh. Alas, Apple was already betting everything on the Macintosh. The IIGS, despite its undeniable qualities, remained in the shadow of its bigger sibling.
Production of the Apple II ended definitively in 1993 after sixteen years of an exceptional career. Over six million units sold testify to a success that transcends computing. This machine democratized the personal computer, proving it could be both powerful and accessible.