Possibly The First Polaroid Pictures Ever Taken Of The Apple-1 In 1976

If these Polaroid pictures look a little rough, keep in mind they were taken back in 1976. It’s inspiring to think about the computer stores that were in business back in the ’70s since the people who worked in those stores were the early pioneers who saw the vision for what personal computers would become. The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California was one of those stores when it opened in December of 1975. Eight months later, in July of 1976, the Apple-1 went on sale for the now famous price of $666.66. According to Wikipedia, that would be $2,723 in 2012 dollars, adjusted for inflation. So it was a very expensive machine, even back then.

Paul Terrell, who was the owner of Byte Shop, talked to Steve Jobs directly about selling the Apple-1, which was originally supposed to be a do-it-yourself kit. Long story short, the Byte Shop became the first Apple retailer. Fast forward to 2012 – According to Time author Harry McCracken, Paul Terrell recently shared some photos on Facebook of the very first Apple-1 from the first order he placed with Apple back in 1976. Back then there were very few Apple products in the world, and these could surely be amongst some of the first Polaroid pictures of Apple products ever taken.

Out of all 3 of these pictures, the first one is definitely my favorite. It’s what is described as the “naked-but-assembled Apple-1.” The second picture includes the video monitor and the third is the Apple-1 running a little program circa 1976. There is something about this story that is truly touching now that Apple products have taught us so much about technology over the years. If you’d like to read more about this and learn more of the history behind these Polaroid pictures, you can click over to the original article on Time called Behold, Some of the First Apple Computer Photos Ever.