Why are Steve Jobs memorabilia always worth several hundred thousand dollars?

Tram Ho

The prototype Apple Computer A computer once owned by the late Apple CEO – Steve Jobs is currently being auctioned – with the lowest possible auction winning price of $500,000, made by auction company RR Auction .

This historic computer was once thought to be lost and was only recently found. The device was hand-soldered by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in 1976 – the exact year of Apple’s founding.

In fact, Apple Computer A is not a cube-shaped device like the personal computers we see today, but just a circuit board with chips and wires – branded with the words embossed. “Apple Computer A 76”.

Vì sao kỷ vật của Steve Jobs luôn có giá tới vài trăm nghìn USD? - Ảnh 1.
Apple Computer A is a circuit board and premise for Steve Jobs and his collaborators to launch Apple 1 – the world’s first personal computer.

This “trial” with the highest historical value was ever offered by Steve Jobs to Paul Terrell – owner of The Byte Shop brand, one of the world’s first personal computer stores. And it was Paul Terrell who encouraged Steve Jobs to develop a commercial version of this product instead of just leaving it in the form of messy circuit boards.

The board and the two Apple co-founders plan to sell using the BASIC programming language to interact. Users need to bring their own storage, power supply and keyboard to be able to use.

Steve Jobs initially intended to sell the circuit board for $ 40, but on the advice of Paul Terrell, he developed a complete version of the Apple 1.

The Byte Shop then ordered 50 units for $666.66 each and became the first store in the world to sell Apple 1 computers. It can be said that Terrell was the one who laid the foundation for Apple’s change. — from a small, personalized operation in “Apple Garrage” to the $2.5 trillion tech giant it is today.

Apple Computer A officially went on the auction floor from July 20 and until July 29, it had an auction price of more than $ 400,000. The auction closing date for this product is August 18.

Few Apple artifacts are valued as rare and of high historical value as this Apple 1 prototype. It has been in the Apple Garage for many years ,” said RR Auction. According to the auctioneer, the current owner of the Apple 1 prototype is unknown, but the unnamed seller said they received the device from Steve Jobs himself about 30 years ago.

The Apple Computer A being auctioned completely matches a photo taken by Terrell in 1976 when he was testing the prototype. The device has also been tested by Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen and confirmed to be a prototype. standard products ” – RR Auction added.

However, based on some images, the Apple 1 prototype is not completely intact, but has lost a piece of the upper right corner that appears to be due to being disassembled. The Polaroid photo from 1976 provided by RR Auction shows that this used to be a complete circuit board.

 - Ảnh 1.

The Apple Computer A product being auctioned by RR Auction is a seemingly incomplete circuit board.

The current state of the circuit board shows the decision of Steve Jobs at the time. He thought that the prototype was not only simple to store but also could be reused. He took out a few chips to make used in the early manufacturing stages of the Apple 1 computer such as microprocessors and other components, ” added RR Auction.

Several rare Apple-1 computers have been auctioned off in recent years. One of the first Apple-1 computers sold for nearly $1 million in 2014. Another Apple-1 sold in 2013 for more than $600,000. RR Auction also sold a working 2020 Apple-1 for $375,000, $75,000 more than its expected sale price.

The formation of the trillion-dollar empire Apple:

1976: Founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded the company on April 1, 1976 when they began selling computer sets to hobbyists, each hand-built by Wozniak. labour.

The first product was the Apple I.

1977: Apple released the Apple II in June, which was the first PC made for the mass market.

1981: Jobs becomes president.

1984: The Macintosh is introduced during a promo for the Super Bowl and then officially announced during a launch event. It was discontinued a year later and Jobs left the company.

1987: Apple releases the Macintosh II, the first color-screen Mac.

1997: Apple announces it will acquire NeXT software in a $400 million deal involving Jobs’ return to Apple as interim CEO. He officially accepted the role in 2000.

2001: Apple introduces first generation iTunes, OS X and iPod.

The first iPod MP3 player was released on October 23, 2001, at an event in Cupertino and could hold up to 1,000 songs.

2007: Apple introduces the iPhone.

2010: The first iPad is announced.

2011: Jobs resigned in 2011 due to illness, handing over the CEO job to Tim Cook. Jobs died in October of pancreatic cancer.

2014: Apple introduces the Apple Watch. It also unveiled its first larger iPhones – the 6 and 6 Plus.

2015: After buying Beats from Dr Dre, Apple launched Apple Music to compete with Spotify and other music streaming services.

2016: Apple “returns to its roots” and announces the 4-inch iPhone SE – a product that has brought success to “Apples with defects” in the past. Meanwhile, the company is embroiled in a legal battle with the FBI, regarding the agency’s request for access to a locked phone used by Syed Farook, who was destroyed in a hack. gun after carrying out a deadly attack in December in San Bernardino, California with his wife. The court order was rescinded on March 28 after the FBI said a third party could unlock the device.

2017: Apple introduces the iPhone X, removing the Home button to make room for a futuristic edge-to-edge screen design and a new FaceID system that uses advanced sensors and lasers to unlock the phone using just the owner’s face. own.

2018: A first for the company, Apple introduces new features in its latest operating system, iOS 12, that encourage users to manage and spend less time on their devices. The move was followed by a strong letter from shareholders calling on the company to tackle the growing problem of smartphone addiction among children and adolescents.

2019: In January, Apple reports its first decline in revenue and profit in a decade. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is partly to blame for the sharp drop in sales from China.

2022: Apple announced a strong increase in revenue again, partly because of COVID-19 being pushed back, partly because of the success of the iPhone 13 generation.

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Source : Genk