On Sat, Aug 5, 2023, 08:54 Bill Degnan via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
The Apple I is not historically significant enough
alone to justify
the prices they get
The first product sold by the first company to hit $1T market cap seems
historically significant to me.
AFAIK the Apple 1 was also the first inexpensive (somewhat subjective)
personal computer to include a composite video text display and a parallel
keyboard interface. Such was possible with the PDP-8 and PDP-11/05, but
they were very expensive, and it wasn't a normal configuration. Also
possible with an S100 system, cheaper than a PDP-anything, but still much
more expensive than Apple 1, and had to be configured out of a lot of
pieces.
There are a lot of "firsts" throughout the history of computing, and I'm
sure that there is disagreement over the significance of many, but I think
I'd have a very hard time justifying myself if I claimed the Apple 1 was
not historically significant.
Eric