The Golden Age of Apple Computers

Much has been written about Apple, Inc. Perhaps too much. But it's understandable: Apple is currently the most valuable publicly owned company in the world. Today, we primarily know this fruit-themed firm as the creator of sleek gadgets for the masses. But once upon a time, Apple was a hungry, pioneering personal computer company (Apple Computer, Inc.) that sold its very first computer as a naked circuit board with nary a piece of shiny glass or milled magnesium alloy to be found.

My how times have changed.

Just this year, in fact, Apple turned 40, and I'd say it's as good a time as any to look back at Apple's early computers during what I will call (somewhat arbitrarily) its "golden age"—those years, 1976 to 1985, when Steve Jobs first worked at Apple.

After all, we've already looked at the Golden Ages of Atari, Commodore, IBM, and Radio Shack computers. It's only fair that we cover Apple as well. And we'll have fun doing it, because Apple introduced no fewer than five incompatible computer platforms during its first eight years in business.

So come along as we revisit those classic systems from Apple's golden era in the slideshow ahead.

1. Apple I (1976)

The very first Apple computer model ever sold did not come with a case, keyboard, or a display. But it was advertised as "fully assembled" since users did not have to solder all the chips to the board. Such was the nature of the Apple I, a computer designed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as a way to show off to the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I's major innovation was combining a video terminal and a computer onto the same circuit board, which allowed customers to use an ordinary TV set as a display.

With only about 200 made, the Apple I is very rare today and often fetches hundreds of thousands of dollars on the auction block. If you have one you don't want any more, let me know.

(Photo: Apple, Inc.)

2. Apple II (1977) / Apple II Plus (1979)

Upon the urging of Steve Jobs, Wozniak followed up on the Apple I with the Apple II in 1977. The Apple II was one of the first personal computers to ship "ready to go" out of the box in a complete case (in lightweight plastic, another innovation) with a keyboard and power supply built in. It was also the first PC with integrated color graphics, and like its predecessor, could use an ordinary home TV set as a display, which cut down significantly on the cost of ownership.

In 1979, Apple followed up the II with the II Plus (which looked nearly identical to the II), an under-the-hood upgrade that shipped with AppleSoft BASIC interpreter in ROM so that it would be ready instantly at boot.

(Photo: Apple, Inc.)

3. Apple III (1980)

In 1980, Apple released its first computer that had not been designed by Steve Wozniak, the business-oriented Apple III. With a sky-high price (between $4,340 to $7,800, or about $12,674 to $22,779 when adjusted for inflation), complex circuit design, a divergence from the Apple II platform, and several design defects including improper ventilation that deformed the motherboard, the III flopped hard. While Apple developed its own advanced command-line operating system (SOS) for the III, few used it. Instead, many simply booted the machine into Apple II compatibility mode.

(Photo: Apple, Inc.)

4. Apple IIe (1982)

With the failure of the Apple III behind it, Apple continued to extend its popular Apple II platform throughout the 1980s. The first major upgrade of the decade came in the form of the Apple IIe, which shipped with support for an official 80-column text option, lowercase characters (yes, that was considered a feature once), more RAM (64K standard, upgradeable to 128K), and several other more minor enhancements. The IIe proved very popular, and Apple continued selling this model (with several revisions) until 1993.

(Photo: Apple, Inc.)

5. Apple Lisa (1983)

Unlike Apple's last attempt at a business platform (the III), the Lisa proved to be a technologically groundbreaking machine. Chief among its achievements: It introduced the mouse-driven Graphical User Interface (GUI) to the mainstream, which paved the way for the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. However, the Lisa's $9,995 base price (about $24,156 today, adjusted) coupled with an underpowered CPU and troublesome disk drives made it a failure in the marketplace. The following year, Apple upgraded the Lisa with a Mac-like 3.5-inch floppy drive and an internal hard drive option, but the platform never took off.

(Photo: Apple, Inc.)

6. Apple Macintosh (1984)

The Macintosh, launched in January 1984, garnered acclaim for compressing much of the mouse-and-window functionality of the Lisa into a smaller, lighter computer that retailed for $2,495. The Macintosh was a success out of the gate, albeit a shaky one due to the limitations of the first model (especially its 128K RAM). Apple doubled down on the Mac, improving its hardware continuously and dramatically over time with new models while expressing wholesale support for the new platform, which became the star breadwinner for the firm until its iPod and iPhone years in the early to mid-2000s.

(Photo: Apple, Inc.)

7. Apple IIc (1984)

Aside from perhaps the Macintosh 512K (released in September 1984), the Apple IIc represented the last major hardware release during our Golden Age of Apple, which ended when Steve Jobs left the company in 1985. The IIc took Apple's most successful platform -- the Apple II -- and streamlined it into a slim, appliance-like design that integrated many functions (two serial ports, mouse port, disk controller, 80-column card) that had traditionally required plug-in cards on the IIe. It also included a built-in disk drive, further enhancing its ease of use. The IIc proved very popular, and its launch in mid-1984 served as a notable cap on Wozniak and Jobs's time together at the company they founded eight years prior.

(Photo: Apple, Inc.)