Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built just 200 of the computers in 1976.
The model auctioned this week contains tell-tale signs that it is a prototype, probably made prior to its manufacturing run. One computer historian says it is "one of the first, if not the first ever" Apple computer. This "celebration edition" Apple 1 was expected to make $1m, but auctioneer Charitybuzz told the BBC that the final bid was $815,000. That means it is not the highest-grossing Apple 1 computer - that distinction belongs to a rare working version that sold for $905,000 at a Bonhams auction in New York in October 2014.
'Manually soldered'No more than 70 Apple 1 computers are believed to still be in existence. The machine - initially named "Apple Computer 1" - first went on sale in July 1976, and was discontinued in October of the following year when the company turned its attention to building the Apple 2. The "celebration edition" is different from the other Apple 1s because it was manually soldered on to a blank PC board, meaning it was not part of the only two production runs of the device. Mr Wozniak was quoted by Charitybuzz as saying: "Only a few Apple 1s, on blank (not green) PC boards, may have been manually soldered, although I'm not sure of it.
Writer - Liam McClelland | @Liamicy