Comment by JKCalhoun
4 years ago
> Apple-1 was the start of the personal computer industry
I feel like the Apple II was a better example of that: the Apple I more like a prototype (that shipped a little).
4 years ago
> Apple-1 was the start of the personal computer industry
I feel like the Apple II was a better example of that: the Apple I more like a prototype (that shipped a little).
In the space of three contiguous paragraphs, that phrase is used three times.
"... the model marked the start of the personal computer industry."
"Apple-1 was the start of the personal computer industry."
"The Apple-1 was the first Apple product to be sold. It marked the start of the personal computer industry."
200 units were built, 80 or so remain around today, and they were released in 1976. The Commodore PET was being designed in 1976, and released in 1977 - before the Apple II. There was, of course, a flurry of other activity around this time.
Are these grandiose claims reasonable?
No, as there are plenty other kit and assembled computers at the time. For example, the IBM 5100 Portable Computer came out in 1975.
https://www.old-computers.com
Sorry for veering off topic, but the 5100 has been the most elusive item I’ve wanted in my collection (probably not true, but the rarer items I want will I likely never obtain. They come up for sale occasionally, and tend to be even more expensive than rarer computers and almost never the APL version.
I mean, IIRC Apple was the first company to use the phrase "personal computer," so perhaps literally true? If not quite what you meant.
That's a good point. (I did not know that either.)
The KIM-1 was out before the Apple-1. Arguably much less of a computer but if all you're looking at is the dates then it was clearly first.
MOS Technology should have forced Apple to pay 30% of their revenue for the privilege of using their 6502 CPU.
Hold on a minute. I was just glancing through this discussion and bumped into your thought here.
Why?
MOS setup to bring an inexpensive microprocessor to market and were successful. In some of the history Chuck Peddle has told, MOS really did not even target the personal computer market initially.
One, it was not quite a thing, and their KIM trainer was aimed at "distributed intelligence", basically embedded type use cases.
Once the ball got rolling, and Apple was a big part of that, using the 6502 gained traction.
Moto, by charging so much for the 6800, and later 6809, missed out on a lot!
Sidebar:
I often wonder what personal computing and video gaming might have looked like had the 6809 been inexpensive and was the basis for all the 6502 machines, or more of them... In terms of capability, the two chips are similar, but the 6809 offered a far more robust instruction set. Maybe it did not matter much overall. The set of possible things is similar enough.
But, I do wonder all the same. Doing really hard, or demanding things with the 6809 has advantages, but I digress big time here!
End sidebar:
In any case, MOS scored! Sold a ton of chips, and why would they be entitled as to get that kind of compensation?
Or, is this snark? Maybe is... LMAO. I probably bit on this when I did not have to. Oh well. Cheers!