On June 10, 1977, Apple launched the Apple II, one of the first pre-built desktop computers. It went on to sell about 6 million units over the course of the next 17 years, making it the longest lived and most successful of the three micro computers that arrived on the market in 1977.

In its original configuration, it sold for $1,295 with 4 KB of RAM, and it plugged into a household cassette tape recorder for storage. Apple did not sell monitors until 1983, so you could either acquire a composite monitor or a third-party RF modulator that allowed you to use it with a television.

This Apple II would have been an expensive setup in 1978. It also would have been the envy of the neighborhood. The Apple II was more expensive than the TRS-80 Model 1 and Commodore PET, but it was the most versatile machine of the three, including being the only one that had color. The popular narrative today is that it was the only one of the three that was successful. But all three of them sold much better than expected. All three of them had a difficult time meeting demand. The Apple II lasted the longest of the three, but that had more to do with its architecture than how well it sold early on.

The secret of the Apple II’s success

The disk drive is another reason people cite for the Apple II’s success, because Steve Wozniak devised a very efficient and inexpensive-to-build disk interface that cost less than the designs anyone else was using. But Apple priced it at $595, which was $96 more than Radio Shack charged for its disk drive. The inexpensive disk drive did more to ensure profitability than it did to drive consumer adoption of disk drives.

The major reason the Apple II was successful and stayed successful so long was its expandability. The case wasn’t even bolted shut. The top attached with hook and loop, practically begging you to open it. If you obliged and opened the lid, you found eight expansion slots inside. The expansion slots made it very easy to expand its capabilities. Virtually anything that you can get on an expansion card for a PC today had an equivalent during the lifetime of the Apple II. Some of them were more popular than others. Cards to allow you to interface to a printer or a modem were the most popular. You could also get a sound card called the Mockingboard that contained two AY-3-8910 sound chips. It was a big upgrade over the II’s built-in sound capabilities.

But another popular option was something called the Microsoft Softcard. The Softcard allowed a computer not made by Microsoft to run an operating system not made by Microsoft. Microsoft’s ulterior motive was they had a library of software for an operating system called CP/M and they figured it would be much easier to bring CP/M to the Apple then it would be to port all of that existing software to the Apple.

Microsoft expected the card to be a minor success, but it quickly became their best-selling product. But the Microsoft Softcard is its own story with its own twists and turns and bizarre coincidences.

The Apple II software library

Being early to market had other advantages. Microsoft may not have been keen to write a bunch of software for the Apple II, but pretty much everyone else was. The Apple II ended up with the largest software library of its generation. As early as 1982, Apple claimed the platform had 10,000 titles available for it. Preservationists are still rediscovering software for the Apple II, so I’m not sure anyone knows exactly how many titles came into existence for it over its 17-year run.

A number of software franchises started out on the Apple II. These include Ultima, Prince of Persia, Flight Simulator, and anything from Sierra On-Line.

Enhanced models

Another reason for its longevity was that Apple didn’t stand still. The Apple II+ followed in 1979, and it was a pretty straightforward upgrade to convert a II to a II+. After the Apple III famously flopped, Apple came back with the Apple IIe in 1983. The IIe was an improved model with an improved display built in and the ability to use much more than 64k of RAM. Apple followed with the semi-portable IIc in 1984. The IIgs from 1986 expanded the architecture to 16 bits while retaining a high degree of compatibility. Finally, Apple introduced an enhanced version of the IIe in 1987 and IIc in 1988 that ran a bit faster.

There was no escaping the Apple II in the 1980s

When I was reading about computers in 1982 and 1983, I distinctly remember reading this specific phrase in a book or magazine: Your first computer probably won’t be an Apple.

And that was for simple economic reasons. In the early 1980s, there were less expensive options, and we were still figuring out what we were going to use these things for. Rather than going and buying the most expensive option right out of the gate, there was an argument for buying something a bit less expensive, learning technology on that, and considering at a later date whether it made sense to trade up.

That wasn’t my only brush with Apple. Not by a long shot. In 1984, we started getting computer-generated Christmas cards. They were printed on a dot matrix printer using a piece of software called Print Shop. The back of the card said they had printed it on their Apple computer.

Schools

Apple wisely sold its computers to the education market at a large discount. They even sold them through Bell and Howell to make buying them easier. The thinking was that people would buy the same computer to use at home that their kids used at school. Then the kids who grew up using Apple computers in school would be more likely to use Apple computers to solve problems at work.

Because of moving and/or redistricting, I changed schools a lot when I was a kid. The result was I used Tandy computers, Commodore computers, Apple computers, and IBM computers in school. The reason we had a Commodore was because in 1984, when my parents relented and decided it was time to get a computer after I’d been pestering them about one for years, the school I was attending at the time had Commodores. So that was what they bought.

Kiosks and interactive exhibits

I had a Commodore and I really liked it. But there was no escaping the Apple II in the 1980s. You didn’t just encounter them at school or at a friend’s house. Department stores would set one up as an interactive kiosk to tell you about products they sold. Museums would set them up for interactive exhibits.

Why the Apple II is collectible today

And that’s part of the reason Apple II computers are expensive and collectible today. They aren’t especially rare. But everyone knew someone who had one, or there was a good chance they used one in school. If nothing else, it was the computer that was out of reach in the late 70s or early 80s but you wanted one because it’s what you we’re supposed to eventually aspire to owning, at least until IBM came along.

I do own a couple of vintage Apple IIs. Not the original model and not even the II+, but I do have a IIc and IIe. They are fun machines with a very large and interesting software library. The selection of software for it is a little bit different than the selection available for a Commodore, Atari, or even IBM. And that’s part of the appeal. It’s a little bit different experience.

The Apple II had a really good run. Apple spent the early 80s doing everything they could to replace it, but it just wouldn’t die. While those replacement attempts either flopped or proved extremely slow starting, the Apple II provided the profits Apple needed to stay in business. If you are reading this blog post on a Mac, an iPhone, or an iPad, it’s because of the Apple II and its success during the brutally competitive 1980s.

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.