How Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen Bus to build Apple’s first computer
Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Steve Wozniak sold a calculator to raise $1,300 and build the Apple I in 1976. Early sales proved there was demand for personal computers and led to the launch of the Apple II.
New Delhi: The history of Apple is based on big ideas, financial risk and improbable sacrifice. A young Steve Jobs believed in the middle of the 1970s that computers were not to be restricted to laboratories and businesses. He felt that every person had a right to a home computer. The problem was money. Jobs himself was in his early twenties and broke, with little but conviction and a clear vision of how things would come to pass.
In order to finance their dream, Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus, and his cofounder, Steve Wozniak, sold his programmable calculator. The pair of them collected approximately 1,300, which was enough to construct the first prototype. The Apple I was born in 1976, on April Fool's Day. An order worth approximately 50,000 was later made by a local computer dealer who ordered 100 units. Although the sales were small, this was a sign that there was actual demand, and this led to the Apple II and the mass market penetration of Apple.
From a garage gamble to a real market
The event that occurred in selling the Apple I was a turning point. It showed Jobs that people were ready to buy a personal computer which was fully assembled. The limited profits were used to finance the Apple II development that would make Apple go from a small startup company to a serious technology firm. It is likely that without those initial sacrifices the journey of Apple would never have commenced.
When Steve Jobs sold illegal ‘Blue Boxes’
Prior to Apple, Jobs and Wozniak were already experimenting with their working relationship by setting up a strange and unlawful business. The two created and sold blue boxes in the early seventies, which were devices that took advantage of tone systems in telephones to make free long-distance calls. This experience, later on, was important to Jobs. It also taught them to collaborate, to resolve complicated issues and how to transform an idea into a product.
Those were often referred to as a magical period by Jobs. The blue box business provided him with confidence and push, whereas the Apple I contributed to his vision that could work in the real world. Apple has had an unusual origin, starting with a sold bus and a hacked phone system and growing into a global company in technologies.