by , 7:00 AM EST, February 7th, 2001

Our series on Apple advertisements from days of old has been enormously popular, and we are very excited about the responses that have been pouring in from Observers with their own Apple ads that they have kept through the years. We will be continuing this series of ads for as long as we get them, and we currently have many of them we are still sorting through. Today, we are very proud to present what we think was the first ever Apple advertisement. Sent in by Observer Jonathan Parker, this ad is from the venerable Byte Magazine and advertises what we now call the Apple I.

Priced at the ominous sounding US$666.66 (a price derived from a 200% markup of component costs and not to be confused with the Number of the Beast if we remember our Mac Bathroom Reader correctly), the Apple I represented the first personal computer (before the term was applied) that was actually useful. It was designed entirely by Steve Wozniak and sold by Steve Jobs and helped propel the two to form Apple Computer.

The Apple I came just as you see above, a circuit board sans any kind of casing. One was expected to make one's own case. It featured a massive 8K of RAM and would actually output to a (gasp!) CRT terminal! Revolutionary, it was quickly seized up in greater quantities than Messrs. Jobs and Wozniak could make in their garage, and boom! Apple Computer was born. We are leaving out a few steps along the way, but if you are interested in this period of Apple's past, make sure you read the Mac Bathroom Reader and Apple Confidential : The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc. Both books are extraordinarily interesting tomes of Apple knowledge written by Owen Linzmayer.

Thanks to Jonathan Parker for sending us this gem. If you have an old Apple or clone ad (including Apple ][ clones as well as Mac clone makers), scan them and send them to us for us to share with Macheads everywhere.