There is a romance attached to the Apple brand thanks to its legendary founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and the company’s inspiring success story. A collaboration between Jobs and Wozniak resulted in the birth of the Apple-1 desktop computer back in 1976. At the time, the now highly outdated Apple-1 computer fetched a price of $666 (Rs 46,596 approx) and lived a shelf-life of only one year, to be replaced by the Apple-II in 1977.
Now, 42 years and many firsts for Apple later, one of the 60-odd Apple-1 computers in the world is going up for auction for an estimated price of $300,000 or upwards of Rs 2 Crores! The ‘Byte Shop’-style Apple-1 computer, complete with all components and accessories required for operation, is available in working condition. Auction house, RR Auction, has listed the bid at $300,000, but the final auction price could be much higher than that. The description of the Apple-1 computer reads – “Restored to its original, operational state in June 2018 by Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen.” Cohen is a computer historian who specialises in fixing Apple-1 computers.
This isn't the first time an old Apple-1 computer has gone up for auction. The same model has previously fetched as much as half a million dollars in auction.
With a price tag of more than 2 crores, buying this Apple-1 computer could be the same as affording a house, a supercar, multiple luxurious international holidays, or even 104 new 2018 MacBook Pro laptops. But some things cannot be valued in money alone. The Apple-1 is a big piece of PC history, without which the world’s biggest company company would not be where it is today. So if you are a die-hard Apple fan and have the cash to splurge without a thought, maybe you could become the prized posessor of this rare computer.
Images courtesy: RR Auction