Subject: Re: Looking For An Apple I
From: Jeff Lemke <lemke@terra.cira.colostate.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2.marketplace
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 19:54:53 -0600
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523
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Cturley2 wrote:
> 
> According to Woz, in my last conversation and email with him concerning the
> Apple 1, he told me that: " We built perhaps 200 Apple I's, sold perhaps
> 175"...see ref url:
> 
> http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*APPLE.HISTORY/
> 
> Woz also mentioned to me that he still had a couple of them he might be willing
> to part with. But, that was in 1996 and he sense has decided to keep them.




For any who might be interested in reading some of what Stan Veit wrote
about the founding of Apple, I've included a few paragraphs about the
Apple I days of 1976.  (Stan Veit was later to be Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus of the Computer Shopper - I think he's a good writer.  His
book, dated 1993, may still be available through WorldComm.)  During the
time of this story, Steve Jobs was trying to convince Veit to invest in
his Apple idea.  The following is excerpted from the book:

	"...He told me he had great plans, and Apple was going to be a big
company.  He asked me to invest $10,000, and said he would give me 10%
of Apple Computer for my investment.

	Looking at this long-haired hippie and his friends, I thought, "You
would be the last person in the world I would trust with ten-grand!"

	What I said was, "Steve, all my money is invested in my store, but I
will help you.  I have a double booth at the big computer show in
Atlantic City, New Jersey this August.  If you come to the show, I will
give you free booth space and publicize the Apple computer."

	He was somewhat disappointed at my turn-down but quick to take
advantage of my offer.  Booth space was expensive, and the show was a
sell out.  "I don't know if we can raise the fare to get to the show,
but if we can I'll take you up on your offer.  Woz has just finished the
Apple II prototype, and he is bringing it over to show you."

	When Wozniak came over I was a little more impressed with him that
Jobs.  He brought a computer board with jumper wires all over and parts
hanging off all over the board.  This was to be the Apple II!  After Woz
hooked his haywire rig up to the living room TV, he turned it on, and
there on the screen I saw a crude Breakout game in full color!  Now I
was really amazed.  This was much better than the crude color graphics
from the Cromemco Dazzler.

	After a few minutes Woz turned it off and said, "I am still working on
it; everything heats up after a while!"

	"How do you like that?" said Jobs, smiling.  "We're going to dump the
Apple I and only work on the Apple II."

	"Steve," I said, "if you do that you will never sell another computer. 
You promised BASIC for the Apple I, and most dealers haven't sold the
boards they bought from you.  If you come out with an improved Model II
they will be stuck.  Put it on the back burner until you deliver on your
promises."

	I suppose I wasn't much encouragement for the young businessman because
I told him things he didn't want to hear, but a week later he called me
in New York.

	"We have the tickets, and we are coming to the Atlantic City Show.  Woz
almost has BASIC finished - we will bring it with us.  Get me a room at
the hotel."

	I called the Shelborne and was told there were no more room.  So I
doubled up two of my people and gave the room to the Apple characters.

	On August 26, 1976, we all went to Atlantic City, New Jersey and the
old Shelborne Hotel for what was to be the first national computer show,
and the most important.  We had our booth set up with our Apple I housed
in a case with a monitor inside and the keyboard in front.  It was a
one-piece masterpiece made by a friend of mine, Mitch Bogdanowitz, who
was a great model maker.  Of course we also showed an IMSAI, and we
expected to receive our first SOL at the show.  Half of the booth we
saved for the two Steves and their Apple computers.  They showed up
later in the day.  Steve Jobs and Dan Kottke came into the booth and
started to set up signs.

	"Woz is in the room finishing BASIC.  He's using the hotel TV," said
Jobs.

	The next day, on August 28th, the show opened.  Steve Jobs had several
Apple I computers running - the new Apple BASIC, and he had one encased
in a wooden cabinet that he was really proud of.  Their exhibit
attracted a lot of attention, as well it should.  In this show full of
8080 computers with large cabinets, flashing lights, and colorful
switches, the Apple was the lone 6502-based machine.  It was a single
board, yet it had its own video display and ran full BASIC.  In addition
it could load from a cassette faster than any other machine there [1200
baud instead of 300].  Nobody who walked anywhere near the booth failed
to be buttonholed by Steve Jobs, who told them in no uncertain terms
what a great thing the Apple was.  He even got press coverage - no mean
feat in a show where the new SOL computer was introduced, where the
Altair B dominated the largest booth, and where TDL showed the very
first Z-80 CPU for the S-100 bus.

	We did not get the new SOL during the show, but one was given to us at
the end.  When the show closed, the partners went back to California
somewhat disappointed because, in spite of all the attention, they had
not sold one Apple I.  Neither had I, although I had taken orders for
several SOLs and a couple Imsai systems."

------------------------------------
Veit then describes that Jobs had found a financial backer anyway - Mike
Makulla - a man who had already made a fortune by investing in the Intel
company and had retired at 30.  Veit continues:
------------------------------------

	"I spent the year after the Atlantic City show selling SOL computers,
SWTPC computers, and developing a dealership in Alpha Micro Time Sharing
computers.  However, when Apple IIs started to arrive, they slowly built
into our major line, displacing the SOL and SWTPC 6800s.  The Apple II
changed the entire business.  No longer did solder iron wielding techies
hang out at our store - the Apple came completely built and ready to
run.  The Apple disk system was priced within everyone's price range,
and soon there was a lot of very useful software for it, lead by
Visicalc, the most important program. Businessmen would come into our
store to buy "A Visicalc Machine" and that's all they used it for.  In
the Apple II users, we saw a different type of enthusiast.  The Apple
users did not mix very well with the S-100 users, just as there is a
division between the Mac users and the MS-DOS users today.  In New York
City, The Big Apple Club was formed just for Apple owners and met at our
store.  The Apple users were much more oriented toward software and
graphics applications.  They were more interested in what a computer did
then how it did it."

------------------------------------

This was a slightly condensed excerpt from Veit's description of the
first year or so of the new Apple Computer Company.  His coverage
continues into the early '80's.


Jeff Lemke