First Apple 1 sold for ?133,000

The first computer Apple founder Steve Jobs built in his parent’s basement has sold for £133,000.

Only a few versions of the Apple 1, launched in 1976, are still around.

According to the Daily Mail, the retro Apple device was auctioned at Christie’s, and in the end went to Italian businessman and private collector Marco Boglione, who made his offer over the phone. Presumably his iPhone.

The Apple 1 initially sold for $666.66, with the cassette player an extra $75. The auctioned model was sold with a letter from Steve Jobs, answering questions as to which monitor and keyboards are bets to use.

Julian Wilson, from Christie’s, said: ‘Before the Apple-1 you would have to put together your own motherboard and would need soldering skills. This is the forerunner of the iPod, iPad and iPhone. It worked straight out of the box, which was the original concept. Apple’s lineage can be traced back to this model and as far as we know there were about 200 made and perhaps a quarter survive.

"The computer technically allowed you to programme and it was like a high-performance calculator. This one comes with an extra cassette interface, which meant you had a read-write capability. Steve Jobs sold these from his parents’ garage and there is a growing appreciation of the history of computing – and this is where home computers started. And finding one in this condition is unheard of."

Image courtesy of Daily Mail.