June 5th, 2007
The Apple II … It was 30 Years Ago Today …
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
It was 30 years ago today … nah, it’s not ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ … that was only 20 years. It’s the Apple II. Yep, the Apple II, considered by many to be the first commercially successful PC went on sale on June 5, 1977. First introduced at the West Coast Computer Faire, it competed against the TRS-80 and Commodore Pet (and they didn’t fair so well).
In its first year of sales, its main competitors were the Tandy Corporation’s TRS-80 and the Commodore Pet. The Apple series of personal computers was built with only minor changes well into the early 1990s. The original Apple II computer was terminated in 1980. In all, between five and six million Apple II series personal computers were built. Source: ITWire
We Say: While it was the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981 that truly juiced up the PC industry, it was the Apple II that first got things rolling. Those were the days, eh? 6502 vs. 8088 CPUs. Without the Apple II, you wouldn’t have seen IBM enter the market, you wouldn’t have seen MS-DOS, and on and on. And of course, no iPods, right? 
Oh, but for the Apple II …
Tom Wassel says:
Grammar police: “fare” not “fair”
June 5th, 2007 at 3:46 am
Kevin says:
‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was 40 years ago, not 20. June 1, 1967 for the UK release, and June 3, 1967 for the US release.
June 5th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Charles says:
I think Michael was refering to the song lyric and not the actual release date of the song.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Charles says:
Tom,
The Grammar Police are the meter maids of law enforcement. Universally despised, albeit somewhat undeserved, and lacking any context other than the little red flag in the meter.
Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong (becuase I could be), but ‘faire’ is an older spelling of the word ‘fair’.
As in, “FAIRE: A market held at regular intervals, usually once to twice a year. Fairs tend to offer a wider range of goods than normal markets and were generally licensed by either the king, a local lord, or a chartered town.”
Also, don’t forget to pay your bus FARE, when you go to the County FAIR.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Mark says:
I used to jones for one of these like a crack addict. It was my porn during my teenage years. I’m not sure if that’s a sad thing or not.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Mumblix Grumph says:
I had an Apple ][c. I replaced the 6502 with a Zip Chip. It made the thing run 4 times faster. I also made a power cord for it so I could use it in the car with a small TV set.
Sigh…I still miss the little bugger.
June 5th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
graveyard says:
The Apple II was the first comp I ever used … Because of it and CS in general, I started getting high marks in a high-school subject for a change.
June 5th, 2007 at 3:53 pm