Buyers don’t byte at £80k pricetag for first ever Apple computer
THOUSANDS queued overnight to buy the latest Apple iPhone5 but an original Apple computer failed to attract a big enough ‘byte’ from bidders when it went up for auction in London today.
An original Apple home computer from the 1970s, with no screen and just 4KB of memory, had been expected to fetch £80,000 when it went under the hammer at Christie’s auction house.
However, even Apple’s most loyal fans decided it wasn’t quite worth that much.
The Apple-1 personal computer, one of the earliest Apple machines, failed to sell.
The 1976 machine was greeted with a top bid of £32,000 – more than £15,000 shy of its reserve price of £50,000.
The result will surely come as a huge disappointment to the all-conquering brand, which is often mocked for over-charging fans for its products.
The Apple-1 went on sale in July 1976 with a retail price of US$666.66 (roughly £415).
It was originally sold without a casing, power supply, keyboard or monitor, with buyers supplying their own.
Auctioneers Christie’s said the Apple-1 machine was produced by the Apple Computer Company in 1976 after being designed and each model hand-built by Steve Wozniak.
His friend Steve Jobs suggested a number of improvements, and handled its sale and marketing. The first Apple-1s were sent to buyers direct from the garage of Jobs’ parents’ house.
To generate enough funds to finance the project, Jobs famously sold his VW and Wozniak his HP-65 calculator.
It was officially discontinued by October 1977, after around 200 units were produced.
It is estimated that less than 50 are still in existence.
The relic was priced at between £50,000 and £80,000 at Christie’s sale of travel, science and natural history in South Kensington.
Speaking before the auction, Christie’s spokeswoman Leonie Pitts described the machine as “historically important.”
She said: “Prior to the Apple-1 only high tech whizz kids had a computer. You had to buy the bits and put it together yourself.”
The computer, boasting a pre-assembled motherboard, revolutionised the industry at a time when computers had to be built after purchase.
In November 2010, an Apple 1 sold at Christie’s in London for £133,250. The computer came with original box, instruction manuals and a signed letter from Mr Jobs, who led Apple until his death last year.
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