Apple Computer began delivering the Apple II to retailers, a fully assembled personal computer with color graphics, a keyboard, and expansion slots that set it apart from the hobbyist kits dominating the market. Designed largely by Steve Wozniak and marketed by Steve Jobs, it became a commercial breakthrough that helped establish the personal computer industry and funded Apple's growth into a major technology company.
When Steve Wozniak finished designing the Apple II's circuit board, he built in features that seemed almost extravagant for the era: color graphics capability, sound, and eight expansion slots that let hobbyists and later entrepreneurs add peripherals like disk drives and modems. Where the earlier Apple I had been a bare circuit board sold mostly to electronics tinkerers, the Apple II arrived as a complete, approachable machine in a molded plastic case, designed to sit comfortably in a living room rather than a garage workshop.
Steve Jobs, obsessive about presentation, insisted on a friendly, unintimidating design and pushed for the machine to be demonstrated at the West Coast Computer Faire that April, where it drew far more attention than the boxy machines from competitors like Commodore. Early investor Mike Markkula's capital allowed the fledgling company to manufacture and ship in volume rather than remain a niche hobbyist operation.
Retail shipments beginning on June 10, 1977, marked personal computing's transition from hobbyist subculture to mainstream consumer product. Bundled with the VisiCalc spreadsheet program a couple years later, the Apple II became a fixture in homes, schools, and small businesses through the early 1980s, selling millions of units and providing the financial foundation that let Apple develop the Lisa and, eventually, the Macintosh.
Key people: Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Mike Markkula