BOSTON: An auction held by Boston-based RR Auction has seen one of the first personal computers built by Apple and signed by company co-founder Steve Wozniak sell for over US$223,000 (RM1.03mil). The Apple-1 was restored to a fully operational state and came with a custom case with a built-in keyboard.
About 200 Apple-1 computers were manufactured in Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ garage in Los Altos, California, in 1976 and 1977. These computers helped launch the company, which recently became the first publicly traded business to have a market value of US$3 trillion (RM13.95 trillion). Initially sold for US$666, the Apple-1 was expected to fetch around US$200,000 (RM1.02mil) at the auction, RR Auction stated.
At an event at Bryant University in 2017, the Apple-1 was signed “Woz” by Wozniak. It was then acquired and used by the person who eventually sold it in 1980 at a computer hobbyist show in Framingham, Massachusetts. The computer continued to be used throughout the 1980s. Earlier this year, Apple expert Corey Cohen successfully restored it to an operational state.
RR Auction revealed that the Apple-1 was purchased by an anonymous collector. Additionally, an original handwritten advertisement for the Apple-1 Computer, written by Steve Jobs, was sold at the same auction for nearly US$176,000 (RM818,664). Furthermore, an Apple company check signed by Jobs and Wozniak and dated March 19, 1976, was sold for over US$135,000 (RM627,952).
Credit: The Star : News Feed
