Apple-1's $666.66 ad: what enterprise tech forgets about accessible computing
The July 1976 Apple-1 advertisement reads like a manifesto against unnecessary complexity. "No More Switches, No More Lights," it declared, selling a complete microcomputer system for $666.66 that connected to a TV instead of requiring an expensive teletype.
Fifty years later, that ad - Jobs' handwritten draft sold for $175,759 in 2023 - matters less as nostalgia than as a reminder of what "accessible" actually meant.
What they shipped
The Apple-1 was a single-board computer with a MOS 6502 processor and 8KB RAM standard. Crucially, it included a video terminal that displayed 960 characters across 24 lines. The competition required teletypes (slow, loud, expensive) or front panels with LED arrays that showed memory locations one at a time.
Apple's approach: connect it to any video monitor or TV, add a keyboard, start programming. Setup measured in minutes, not hours. About 200 units shipped before the Apple II replaced it.
The first order of 50 units from Byte Shop forced Jobs and Wozniak to actually assemble boards instead of selling kits. That constraint - building finished products - shaped Apple's enterprise trajectory more than the technology itself.
The trade-off that worked
By integrating video terminal, dynamic memory, and power supply on one board, Apple reduced chip count and cost. They used new 16-pin 4K dynamic RAM chips instead of the standard 2102s everyone else relied on. Eight kilobytes fit in sixteen chips, not the 64 required by conventional approaches.
The cassette interface worked reliably with consumer-grade recorders at 1,500 bits per second. Apple BASIC came free. The message: you shouldn't need expensive peripherals to do real work.
What enterprise tech forgot
Modern enterprise platforms promise "single panes of glass" while requiring multiple vendor integrations, specialized training, and dedicated operations teams. The complexity isn't always justified by capability.
Apple-1's lesson wasn't about specs - 8KB is laughable now. It was about removing barriers between intent and execution. When government departments talk "digital transformation" while maintaining systems that require three training sessions to provision a user account, that lesson hasn't landed.
The computer industry has more panes than a greenhouse. Sometimes the better question is whether you need the glass at all.
Worth noting
VCF East plans a 50th anniversary Apple-1 exhibit in April 2026. The original boards occasionally surface at auction - a Wozniak-signed unit sold for $223,520. Collectors track them. Enterprise architects might learn more from the ad copy.