Apple Founder Steve Jobs.
A handwritten advertisement written by Apple Founder Steve Jobs for the Apple-1 Computer was recently sold at an auction for $175,759 (approximately Rs 1.4 crore), according to Boston-based RR Auction. It also includes two polaroids of the working prototype, photographed at The Byte Shop in California. These pictures show an entire Apple-1 computer board along with a keyboard and monitor. A screen from an Apple-1 computer showing an Apple Basic program is also displayed. In a picture annotated by Mr Jobs, he mentioned that it is "fuzzy because the camera wiggled."
The advertisement is signed in lowercase letters with Mr Jobs' full name, "Steven Jobs." The phone number and address of his parents' house, which served as the Apple Computer Company's first headquarters "11161 Crist dr., Los Altos, Ca 94022, (415) 968-3596," are listed among the contact details.
The auction house states in the description of the product, "Penned neatly in black ink on an off-white 8.5 x 11 binder sheet, the advertisement, which essentially serves as a rough draft specification sheet for the Apple-1, was given to the consignor during a visit to Jobs' garage in 1976."
The advertisement titled "Apple Computer-1" stated that it uses either a 6800, 6501, or 6502 microprocessor, noting in parentheses that the 6501 or 6502 are "recommended because we have basic." The Apple Founder also added "on board" list which mentioned "all power supplies, 8K bytes of RAM (16 pin 4K dynamic), full crt terminal-input: ASC11 Keybd, output: composite vidio, fully expandable to 65K via edge connector, 58 ic's which includes 16 for 8K ram!! Monitor software (for 2 proms on board (256 bytes)) included."
He also stated the use of "basic on the way (ROM)," which according to RR Auctions, never came to pass for the Apple-1 but did for the Apple 2. He concluded the advertisement by quoting a $75 price for "board only + manual, a real deal."
The auction house added, "According to Apple historian Corey Cohen, the technical specifications of this handwritten advertising draft match neatly with the original advertisement for the Apple-1, which was first printed in the July 1976 issue of Interface Magazine, marking the public start of what would become one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world."