Apple II

The Apple II (stylized as apple ][) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world’s first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak (Steve Jobs oversaw the development of the Apple II’s foam-molded plastic case and Rod Holt developed the switching power supply). It was introduced by Jobs and Wozniak at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire and was the first consumer product sold by Apple Computer, Inc. It is the first model in a series of computers which were produced until Apple IIe production ceased in November 1993. The Apple II marks Apple’s first launch of a personal computer aimed at a consumer market—branded toward American households rather than businessmen or computer hobbyists. The three computers that Byte Magazine referred to as the “1977 Trinity” of home computing: the Commodore PET 2001, the Apple II, and the TRS-80 Model I. Byte magazine referred to the Apple II, Commodore PET 2001 and the TRS-80 as the “1977 Trinity.” The Apple II had the defining feature of being able to display color graphics, and this capability was the reason why the Apple logo was redesigned to have a spectrum of colors.