00:00:00 ◼ ► welcome back to designed in california i'm jason snell with mike hurley we are now out of the
00:00:16 ◼ ► bicentennial mike no more american patriotism that's great it's april 1977 now it's a different
00:00:23 ◼ ► era and we are about to go to san francisco to the civic auditorium where the west coast computer fair
00:00:32 ◼ ► is going to open in a matter of hours apple is there so this is very exciting because we don't
00:00:40 ◼ ► know who's going to be there right this is very exciting stuff we're in new frontiers it's a new
00:00:45 ◼ ► industry it's a new model nobody really knows what's going to happen but apple is there to show
00:00:49 ◼ ► off the apple too yeah however they don't have cases for the apple too yet so that didn't work
00:00:55 ◼ ► then it's a matter of hours before the show and the plastics company again a local bay area plastics
00:01:05 ◼ ► company delivers 20 apple 2 cases apparently according to many of the stories about this era
00:01:12 ◼ ► right to the booth they may have delivered some of them to apple prior but there are there are other
00:01:18 ◼ ► stories that they literally deliver them to the booth well and there in the middle of the san francisco
00:01:24 ◼ ► civic auditorium apple's young employees begin installing the apple twos parts into the cases
00:01:31 ◼ ► they made it everybody they did it we got okay we use the cheaper reaction injection molding instead of
00:01:36 ◼ ► the really nice abs plastic that really should be for mass production but they you know they got 20 of
00:01:42 ◼ ► them that worked out they're going to be able to use these to show on the show floor what this product
00:01:46 ◼ ► looks like and it's great this is a company that started literally with a bunch of teenagers assembling
00:01:51 ◼ ► computers in a bedroom in a garage so they know how to put things together it's going to be fine
00:01:55 ◼ ► so now i can piece where we are in one of my favorite movies the pirates of silicon valley because there is
00:02:03 ◼ ► a moment where they're all hurriedly trying to put computers together and so now i have an image
00:02:10 ◼ ► based on that movie of what the west coast computer fair is and i now have a sense of what is about to
00:02:16 ◼ ► happen yes if you have a premonition that what i'm doing here is teeing up a complete disaster you are
00:02:21 ◼ ► 100 correct the cheap reaction injection molding process has led to cases that are full of bubbles
00:02:27 ◼ ► and defects none of the parts fit properly right everything is inconsistent you can't take the lid
00:02:36 ◼ ► from one case and put it in another case yes it won't fit they're paired because of the inconsistencies
00:02:43 ◼ ► okay team huddle up what do we do they get out knives and sandpaper and they go to work like
00:02:53 ◼ ► doing plastic surgery on these plastic cases i guess it is literally plastic surgery surgery yeah
00:02:58 ◼ ► they sand down parts of the cases they build others up using putty or like bondo from that you use for
00:03:04 ◼ ► a car but then they look terrible so then they have to put beige because these are all beige they have
00:03:09 ◼ ► to repaint them to hide the damage in the end only six are in display condition okay out of 20 but
00:03:19 ◼ ► they've got six that look like computers but that's fine though right yes because why do they need 20
00:03:25 ◼ ► like they're just showing them they all they need is an amount that they can show which they've got and
00:03:31 ◼ ► you know fake it till you make it that's what they're doing here they're faking until they make it and
00:03:35 ◼ ► the doors open welcome to the west coast computer fair it's april 1977 and if you were at the san
00:03:42 ◼ ► francisco civic auditorium in april 1977 waiting in line and the doors open and you walked in what would
00:03:51 ◼ ► you see first the answer is apple computer they were front and center they had the best booth steve jobs is
00:04:02 ◼ ► there brace yourself wearing a tie i assume he has shoes on as well yeah yeah i think mike markala
00:04:11 ◼ ► insisted that everybody dress nicely do we know why they were front and center i don't know exactly how
00:04:18 ◼ ► they got the spot but they got that spot they that was a a thing that either it was an accident or it was
00:04:24 ◼ ► purposeful by somebody i don't know that part of the story but they ended up front and center they may have
00:04:29 ◼ ► paid extra for it yeah they spent some money it depends though right because like being front and
00:04:35 ◼ ► center doesn't mean anything unless you have something that is impressive to see when people
00:04:40 ◼ ► come in so they hired a designer who created a minimal sleek booth design that wasn't the generic
00:04:47 ◼ ► trade show build out and most of the booths were generic trade you know the type right where it's got like a
00:04:54 ◼ ► little thing with a thing that says the name of the company printed in like black on white and there's
00:04:59 ◼ ► like a curtain yeah and like it's just generic right you can get that it's a turnkey like you pay your
00:05:05 ◼ ► money and they're like yeah we got a booth for you here yeah apple didn't do that so apple's booth stands
00:05:09 ◼ ► out it's a very steve jobs touch too they hire this designer it people noticed they come in it looks
00:05:17 ◼ ► different it looks more professional and the people there are dressed professionally they have learned the
00:05:21 ◼ ► lesson of the twa flight to philadelphia where the other company has all the great people in suits
00:05:28 ◼ ► apple is dressed up for the occasion they are making the yes they have just recently sanded all of their
00:05:35 ◼ ► computers and painted them in order to get them to look okay but like they're giving the impression
00:05:39 ◼ ► that this is a real company so this is steve jobs proving to jerry wozniak what the 50 is for
00:05:45 ◼ ► right yeah this is jobs doing what jobs does yeah that's it and people noticed apple and they noticed
00:05:52 ◼ ► the apple too they noticed all six of them that were there this event is a big deal not only did the
00:06:00 ◼ ► apple too debut here at the west coast computer fair fair with an e at the end by the way with just
00:06:05 ◼ ► kind of a jaunty of course thing yield yield computer fair but also debuting at the computer fair the
00:06:13 ◼ ► commodore pet okay jack trameel's cheap computer response to not buying waz's computer and radio shack
00:06:23 ◼ ► the in a big endorsement of personal computers by the way radio shack the electronics chain
00:06:29 ◼ ► massive electronics chain came out with their own computer called the trs80 okay it really was in
00:06:38 ◼ ► some days the true beginning of the personal computer era with those computers these are like the
00:06:44 ◼ ► foundational computers of the early pc era so thousands of people we were saying before who's
00:06:53 ◼ ► going to even come to this thing nobody really knew thousands of people came there were lines around
00:06:58 ◼ ► the block some of the early hardware hackers of the kind of early generation said it was like their
00:07:03 ◼ ► woodstock yeah and the guy who organized the west coast computer fair jim warren described it this way
00:07:12 ◼ ► this is in i think stephen levy's book hackers it's amazing he said we didn't know what we were doing
00:07:18 ◼ ► and the exhibitors didn't know what they were doing and the attendees didn't know what was going on
00:07:24 ◼ ► but everybody was excited and congenial and undemanding and it was a tremendous turn on
00:07:30 ◼ ► okay jim let's calm down a minute that's an all-timer that's fantastic but this is interesting though right
00:07:38 ◼ ► that like commodore pet trs80 and apple 2 these are names that continue to mean something yes all these
00:07:46 ◼ ► years later yes they're not the soul they're not the soul which is maybe a a large portion of our
00:07:52 ◼ ► audience including me learned about that computer for the first time and having this conversation this
00:07:57 ◼ ► podcast yes but the trs80 and the pet i know these i just know of them they're just something that have
00:08:03 ◼ ► persisted even though absolutely even though these companies don't really exist anymore that's true and
00:08:09 ◼ ► apple does they are at least part of law like like understood known computer law and it is interesting
00:08:17 ◼ ► that they all kind of had their coming out parties at this one event that ostensibly didn't really mean
00:08:25 ◼ ► anything right that the the the west coast computer fair had no lineage and clearly as as jim warren says
00:08:32 ◼ ► no one knew what they were doing but there was obviously something in the water something happened
00:08:37 ◼ ► that day that's that was it that was it is like nobody knew like jim warren says nobody quite knew
00:08:42 ◼ ► what it was or what it was going to be but something was happening yeah and the fact that these three
00:08:47 ◼ ► computers debuted here is part of the thing that was happening and the fact that all these people came
00:08:52 ◼ ► i think a lot of these people didn't know anything about it but they thought they knew something was
00:08:56 ◼ ► happening yeah and that it was interesting and that they were going to check out what was going on yeah and
00:09:00 ◼ ► apple made an impression absolutely so being at the fair showed that apple was a serious player
00:09:11 ◼ ► and good news it also got apple its third investor okay mike markala encouraged venture capitalist
00:09:21 ◼ ► arthur rock to go to the show and check out the apple booth and you're thinking to yourself yeah he
00:09:27 ◼ ► probably walked up and asked and got a demo and was like very impressed no he tried to get to the apple
00:09:32 ◼ ► booth and he couldn't get close to it because the crowd was big and super enthusiastic and he was like
00:09:38 ◼ ► okay i'm in for 57 grand i guess what a weird 57 600 okay arthur rock whatever but still somebody on
00:09:47 ◼ ► the outside was like i will invest in your company this is this is good i i like what i'm seeing here that's
00:09:52 ◼ ► about 300 000 today so is this going to work this gets portrayed a lot as this incredible triumph for
00:09:58 ◼ ► apple but there were doubts and i think it's worth mentioning that like this is not the the slam dunk
00:10:05 ◼ ► that i think it often gets portrayed at even in pirates of silicon valley actually i think that
00:10:11 ◼ ► this in pirates of silicon valley people were like tearing each other apart to try and get near it and and
00:10:15 ◼ ► there's this moment where the other computer manufacturers are all peering at the apple booth
00:10:20 ◼ ► sad because nobody's coming to see theirs that's how i remember this moment well jim warren said
00:10:30 ◼ ► processor technology the makers of the saw had a booth twice apple size well because they had had some
00:10:36 ◼ ► success already right or at least investment i don't know if they had success but and byte magazine wrote a
00:10:42 ◼ ► story about the west coast computer fair and didn't mention apple is byte magazine and the byte shop are
00:10:51 ◼ ► they involved together in any way or is it just by it's just it's just computer words right yeah so still
00:10:57 ◼ ► apple took 300 orders pre-orders for the apple 2 over the next few weeks okay encouraging start yes
00:11:06 ◼ ► encouraging start that people might actually see the value of this thing and want this thing
00:11:11 ◼ ► and that apple might actually have for the first time a real product that regular people might want
00:11:19 ◼ ► to buy it's a good encouraging start at the west coast computer fair so now all that is left
00:11:28 ◼ ► is to ship this thing okay so the 300 orders people aren't getting those computers not yet but soon okay
00:11:37 ◼ ► it's almost june 1977 and the apple 2 is about to ship and we'll tell you more about that after the break
00:11:52 ◼ ► this is the last time this is the final episode in our preview series of designed in california thank you
00:12:00 ◼ ► so much if you've listened to the apple 2 series so far we really hope that you've enjoyed it obviously
00:12:06 ◼ ► you will learn by the end of this episode though obviously this is not the end of the stories about
00:12:10 ◼ ► the apple 2 they will come back again in the future because there's a lot that the apple 2 has a long
00:12:16 ◼ ► storied life that i am looking forward to learning more about i mean in the time that we've known each
00:12:22 ◼ ► other you've often mentioned to me and steven has too about you know like the apple 2 continuing long
00:12:28 ◼ ► into the max life um and so i'm excited to learn a little bit more kind of about the unkillable
00:12:34 ◼ ► computer that is the apple 2 it's true there's they tried and tried and tried and they and they
00:12:39 ◼ ► couldn't kill it so yeah we'll talk about that in design in california i want to i want to
00:12:42 ◼ ► i want to thank everybody who's an upgrade listener who has supported our kickstarter campaign
00:12:46 ◼ ► we really appreciate it at design.fm if you didn't know and if you haven't yet i mean the good news is
00:12:53 ◼ ► you've still got a few days to do it also i want to thank all upgrade listeners for their patience in
00:12:58 ◼ ► us inserting these episodes in the upgrade feed we knew you know again it's like it's your pals jason and
00:13:05 ◼ ► mike but it is also not the same show and it's an extra we're not taking away from upgrade but it's an
00:13:10 ◼ ► extra so we appreciate your patience and having these episodes drop here i we felt like this was
00:13:15 ◼ ► a right one of the right things to do as part of this campaign but we also know that it's a it's a
00:13:20 ◼ ► change and it's not a permanent change it's just for this because there will be a separate design
00:13:24 ◼ ► in california feed so don't worry about that too much but thank you for your patience and the other
00:13:29 ◼ ► updates we've got as we move at about 190 000 as we're recording this and hoping to get over 200 000 and
00:13:36 ◼ ► lock in those live events and in san francisco and london we already have unlocked more art we have
00:13:42 ◼ ► sam hart who did the art for atomic blonde uh the graphic novel that became the movie he's doing some
00:13:49 ◼ ► original artwork for us for the show we are also doubling the number of art prints in the art print
00:13:55 ◼ ► level you'll get two now instead of one these are a4 prints on really beautiful paper there will be one
00:14:01 ◼ ► that's based on the kickstarter art that you've already seen and there'll be another one that's
00:14:05 ◼ ► based on some other original art and we will sign we will both sign the same one of one of them we
00:14:12 ◼ ► probably won't sign both of them because that's a lot of things to sign no i also think we shouldn't
00:14:17 ◼ ► i think it's nice to have one signed piece and then one non-signed piece and you can choose what
00:14:21 ◼ ► you want to do with them so that's going on so that's people will get more and we're going to commission
00:14:24 ◼ ► more from sam and we're going to commission more theme songs from chris breen because we've blown
00:14:27 ◼ ► through all of these goals so you can upgrade your pledge by the way like if you can if you
00:14:31 ◼ ► hear that and you're like oh i would like that you can upgrade your pledge you can move your pledges
00:14:35 ◼ ► around and there have been lots of people that have been doing that thank you if you have upgraded your
00:14:38 ◼ ► pledge for any reason during the campaign that's still a thing that you can do and you can look in
00:14:43 ◼ ► the show notes for information if you're a member for a deal on top of that if you're an upgrade member
00:14:49 ◼ ► but yes anybody and anybody who already has bought at the level that includes the artwork you don't have
00:14:54 ◼ ► to do anything you're going to get two pieces instead of one that's just a done deal we did
00:14:58 ◼ ► it we added to it and then we're working on the pin design we had a pin design that was okay and mike
00:15:04 ◼ ► did that disney thing where he's like let's plus this this is good but it's not good enough i it was i
00:15:09 ◼ ► would say our pin design was very much in line with a lot of the kickstarter tchotchkes that i get which
00:15:13 ◼ ► is like it's fine but it's like they haven't done the thing yet so it's just kind of a logo or whatever
00:15:19 ◼ ► and you're like we can do better than this and i think we did do better than this and we we both love it
00:15:24 ◼ ► and yeah i think i think our hope is that we're gonna we're gonna sign all the posters together
00:15:29 ◼ ► in memphis when we're there for the podcast-a-thon trying to work that out now yeah so you can also
00:15:34 ◼ ► um if you're a supporter we may post some video of us like signing those posters and all of that and
00:15:40 ◼ ► that'll be part of the process too as we continue this journey but anyway it's uh so it's proceeding
00:15:44 ◼ ► we've got as we you know as we release this it's a handful of days yeah before the the the whole thing is
00:15:52 ◼ ► done definitely still time if you want to raise your pledge or if you've been thinking about it
00:15:56 ◼ ► our friend glenn fleischman tells us that some people just don't want to back anything until
00:15:59 ◼ ► it's the end and then they just go in right at the end so if you're that person it's getting there it's
00:16:04 ◼ ► very close now yeah the end is nigh but anyway so that's the end of our last interstitial for our last
00:16:11 ◼ ► of these uh special upgrades where we're previewing designed in california all these episodes will show
00:16:17 ◼ ► up in the proper designed in california feed when we launch that later this summer and they'll also
00:16:22 ◼ ► remain as upgrade episodes which as several people have pointed out means we are stealing a month away
00:16:28 ◼ ► from the draft of the ages which i kind of like i kind of like it also we i was looking at the future
00:16:33 ◼ ► and there was a conflict that the draft of the ages was going to have with the upgrade christmas special
00:16:38 ◼ ► and the new year's uh upgrades episode and this actually pulls it all back into i think november
00:16:44 ◼ ► now nice so we we've look we've engineered this ourselves to save a month on the draft of the ages
00:16:49 ◼ ► so that's a good little upgrade note for us to drop here so anyway thank you mike for going on this
00:16:55 ◼ ► journey with me oh come on thank you uh design.fm thank you all for going on this journey with us as
00:17:01 ◼ ► jason mentioned a few more days to back the kickstarter campaign uh before it closes and
00:17:05 ◼ ► then later on in the year this show will return as its own show so look forward to that as well
00:17:28 ◼ ► it's ship day finally we have told the apple too story and it leads us really to the beginning
00:17:35 ◼ ► right like this is the story that leads to the starting gun and then what happens after is a
00:17:39 ◼ ► different story yeah because as you've mentioned many times the apple one is not the beginning of
00:17:44 ◼ ► apple it isn't the thing that made them who they became the apple too is what made them who they become
00:17:50 ◼ ► exactly and and the start of the path is getting to the starting line and then you have to run the race
00:17:59 ◼ ► thirteen hundred dollars okay the equivalent of six thousand five hundred dollars today that's a
00:18:06 ◼ ► lot of money cheap it's a lot of money that's a lot of money very very expensive in these days
00:18:11 ◼ ► a sixty five hundred dollar starting price we don't have computers that cost that money
00:18:17 ◼ ► no no it's one of those ways where technology has become so much cheaper even expensive technology is
00:18:23 ◼ ► so much cheaper than it was it will not surprise you to learn that apple made a computer that was
00:18:29 ◼ ► more expensive than the other ones okay like this is always this is always an apple thing right like
00:18:36 ◼ ► apple apple makes more expensive products that are better but more expensive this is their thing it's
00:18:42 ◼ ► always been their thing since june 1977 it's been their thing the commodore pet only cost 800 and it
00:18:47 ◼ ► came with a screen the trs80 cost 600 that means that the this you know it's half what the apple 2 costs
00:18:56 ◼ ► for the trs80 well was said that the apple 2 had 10 times the capability is the apple one yeah
00:19:04 ◼ ► yeah yeah the other competitors didn't support color didn't support sound didn't have graphics
00:19:14 ◼ ► and didn't have expansion slots and i will also say as somebody who used a first generation commodore pet
00:19:22 ◼ ► a few times in my school the keyboard was so bad so in order to fit the keyboard and the tape drive
00:19:30 ◼ ► in the same space the keyboard was this little like metal chiclet kind of keyboard it was terrible
00:19:40 ◼ ► so not a great product they got better they they did a better keyboard later but the first one was so bad
00:19:46 ◼ ► however unsurprisingly i would say the cheaper computers sold better than the apple 2 sure
00:19:55 ◼ ► at least at first right like they're cheaper they appealed to more people trs80 had the entire
00:20:02 ◼ ► radio shack store chain to use to sell personal computers to people commodore used the same sales
00:20:09 ◼ ► network that it used for its calculators to distribute commodore pets but over time apple started to crack
00:20:18 ◼ ► the market apple had more work to do because nobody knew apple they didn't have a distribution chain
00:20:22 ◼ ► they didn't have a retail outlet they had to work for it but it grew because it had better features
00:20:29 ◼ ► it had expansion slots all three computers used tape drives for storage which is take it from me i only
00:20:37 ◼ ► have vague memories of using a tape with a computer before the disk drives came in because i was really young
00:20:43 ◼ ► but it was terrible i remember we would get this readout that would say press play on tape number one
00:20:52 ◼ ► and that was a moment where a kid like just you wanted to cry why because you would have to
00:20:57 ◼ ► press play on the cassette tape and then wait oh minutes so it would load data for the tape to play in your
00:21:05 ◼ ► program that you wanted to load i see okay so it's loading it to rom so you want to play a game you want
00:21:11 ◼ ► to play that dungeon crawl where you listen and hear if there's a dragon coming and you try to move and you
00:21:14 ◼ ► hunt the wampus or whatever right and you can't you're ready to play but no press play on tape one
00:21:19 ◼ ► and you got to wait okay ages so these are these all need to be better than they were right that's a
00:21:26 ◼ ► problem that's going to need to be solved was is going to be on that one okay but people did start
00:21:32 ◼ ► falling in love with the apple too but how how did people find it like how would p apple actually selling
00:21:39 ◼ ► this to customers computer stores that were coming into existence like the bite shop they were trying
00:21:44 ◼ ► to reach computer stores i know that when i you know bought my first my apple 2e i bought it at a
00:21:50 ◼ ► computer called like online computers plus that was in a strip mall and they were a computer store
00:21:57 ◼ ► so i think they were trying to reach audiences that way they did advertising so you could buy it from
00:22:04 ◼ ► them direct or your local computer dealer but they had to build a dealer network that was that was
00:22:10 ◼ ► a challenge they didn't have a ready-made dealer network and so there was an element of these
00:22:16 ◼ ► companies like dealers also needing to spring up for apple to be able to tap into it's also yeah
00:22:25 ◼ ► everything is happening yeah is building from scratch there were i think there were a lot of
00:22:29 ◼ ► electronics and computer shops out there that had been selling primitive computers and kits and stuff
00:22:37 ◼ ► who saw the potential of these products right these are consumer products they can get a they can sell
00:22:43 ◼ ► a lot of these yeah probably at a pretty good you know profit margin yeah and to an audience broader
00:22:49 ◼ ► than the audience that normally would come to their stores so i think there's a lot of that going on as
00:22:53 ◼ ► well because also it's like if you were a company that sold say radio parts or whatever like radio shack
00:23:00 ◼ ► obviously but but there would be competitors they see the writing on the wall of what computers are going
00:23:06 ◼ ► to be right so they will be looking for companies like an apple to be able to have a new products to
00:23:13 ◼ ► sell because otherwise they're they're gonna get hurt i don't know if they see the writing on the wall so
00:23:18 ◼ ► much as it's another opportunity to expand into a related area i'm not sure they're concerned that
00:23:23 ◼ ► they're right soldering kits are going to be outmoded even though that that a lot of that will happen
00:23:28 ◼ ► i i that was more negative than i meant it but just that they saw the opportunity say rather
00:23:32 ◼ ► than the writing on the wall they see an opportunity for here's another thing that we can sell to
00:23:36 ◼ ► consumers yes is is these computers yeah that sort of fits in our in our ballpark because we are a more
00:23:42 ◼ ► technical kind of outfit yeah and there are computer stores that are springing up that that's what they
00:23:48 ◼ ► do is they will sell you a computer they'll probably sell you like a maintenance contract or something
00:23:53 ◼ ► where there's a person who will troubleshoot it for you or whatever that's all starting to happen
00:23:58 ◼ ► it's slow and it's small we think don't think of this in terms of high volume none of these products
00:24:03 ◼ ► are really high volume yet but people do start loving the apple tube right bite magazine that ignored
00:24:10 ◼ ► them at the west coast computer fair wrote a review of it that said i was able to turn on power and
00:24:16 ◼ ► begin using the computer within five minutes of receipt which is a rave huge it's a game changer
00:24:22 ◼ ► was built basic into the rom so you can like turn it on and start programming right away you don't have
00:24:30 ◼ ► to type in a anything to start up like it's or load something off of a tape to do that part of it and so
00:24:37 ◼ ► so it's a big deal like this is this is the the brand promise that they're building here yeah sales
00:24:41 ◼ ► did ramp up at one point they started to forecast they might make a million bucks in the first year
00:24:45 ◼ ► of this thing which is huge right like the apple has made almost nothing at this point things are
00:24:50 ◼ ► getting interesting and i think it's also worth stopping here because we've spent a lot of time in this
00:24:57 ◼ ► talking about the founding of apple right going back to our apple at 50 episode and then into this series
00:25:17 ◼ ► the apple 2 is collectively a creation of the company for the first time was is at the heart of
00:25:27 ◼ ► it sure the motherboard his software skills as well integrating the software in it's a huge part of
00:25:33 ◼ ► it getting basic on there but jerry mannock designed that case rod holt designed the power supply which he
00:25:41 ◼ ► patented like it was a big deal and in what i think is the career defining moment in some ways
00:25:50 ◼ ► the guy in the background pushing all of them to make the product that he felt needed to be made for
00:25:58 ◼ ► apple to succeed is steve jobs in hindsight as i worked on this story and looked at this moment
00:26:08 ◼ ► i think this is when steve jobs became steve jobs that he's the one who is seeing the big product
00:26:16 ◼ ► picture and then different talented people not just was are putting the pieces together
00:26:23 ◼ ► but like the power supply is what it is because jobs wanted that power supply the case is what it is
00:26:28 ◼ ► because jobs wanted that case because he had the vision for what the end product was going to be
00:26:34 ◼ ► and it was built around was's innovation but it didn't stop there think back to jerry wasniak
00:26:41 ◼ ► right making steve jobs cry was is dead fairly maybe maybe unfairly asked what did jobs bring to the
00:26:51 ◼ ► equation what made it worth him being 50 50 with wasniak apple 2 is the answer steve jobs is the person with
00:26:59 ◼ ► the bigger vision he's the one who's focused on the product that is going to appeal to consumers and
00:27:10 ◼ ► jobs is the one who's like now we need to make something of this he got a bunch of talented people
00:27:17 ◼ ► and got them all to row in more or less the same direction for my money this is the start of steve jobs as we
00:27:24 ◼ ► know him is this moment of making the apple 2 what it is because the apple 2 it is not fair to say the
00:27:29 ◼ ► apple 2 like the apple 1 is all about waz it's not all about waz waz is incredibly important to the apple
00:27:36 ◼ ► 2 wouldn't have made it without him obviously there are more contributions to come they're going to need
00:27:40 ◼ ► a disk drive because the tape drive sucks and waz is going to be the one who makes that happen waz is
00:27:46 ◼ ► incredibly important but the point is he's not the whole picture there are other talented technical
00:27:52 ◼ ► people and talented designers and a whole team that's making it happen and the person who's seeing
00:27:59 ◼ ► the product as a whole and how it will appeal in the market to regular people who would never have even
00:28:06 ◼ ► thought of spending money on a computer before that's all steve jobs because you mention it like
00:28:15 ◼ ► that you know the people that you've you've brought out right so jerry and rod who are new in the sense
00:28:20 ◼ ► of brick coming to the apple 2 and bringing their things when you mention these people coming onto the
00:28:25 ◼ ► project it's jobs who finds them or jobs who has conversations with them jobs who convinces them to
00:28:30 ◼ ► come on board gives them what they need gives them what is interesting to these people to come on to
00:28:37 ◼ ► the project uses trickery to say yes but that's what it takes at this point yeah remember this company's a
00:28:43 ◼ ► year old right like they need to be able to convince these people to come along with them to build this
00:28:49 ◼ ► project and he is the person at each stage finding the right people and working with them to create this
00:28:57 ◼ ► product because you said like if the apple 2 was another set of chips screwed into a piece of wood
00:29:04 ◼ ► this product's just not making it's just not getting there it's just not going to do it if they would
00:29:08 ◼ ► have shown up to the west coast computer fair with the apple one version two it was game over well
00:29:17 ◼ ► and like would it have worked in a in a sheet metal box with a traditional power supply and a fan less
00:29:26 ◼ ► so you know yeah i think that's it yes yes but it would have been technically impressive but it would
00:29:32 ◼ ► have been less so and it would have been more like all of the competition because even though we know the
00:29:38 ◼ ► product was more technically impressive and looked good as you mentioned it still didn't get a lot of fanfare
00:29:46 ◼ ► after the fact it wasn't written about it wasn't the early sales lead and so even with all of the
00:29:52 ◼ ► things that made the apple two what made it the apple two it still needed help and it still needed to be
00:29:57 ◼ ► pushed along so if they would have had an underwhelming first showing that was it it was done like
00:30:04 ◼ ► the i'm sure tens of other companies that were demoing at the west coast computer fair that we are
00:30:27 ◼ ► and and to people who would otherwise not consider a computer because it's more humane i think it's a
00:30:42 ◼ ► by you know your technical acumen has to qualify you and like building something that looks like a
00:30:54 ◼ ► but a thing that looks like a cuisinart even though it's not a cuisinart right it's six thousand dollars
00:31:00 ◼ ► or whatever in today's money it's it's very expensive but it's softer and curvier and feels more
00:31:10 ◼ ► at home in a home or in a school and not in a metal shop and or or an industrial garage and that is
00:31:21 ◼ ► something that in the long run um is one of the reasons the apple 2 becomes as successful as it
00:31:26 ◼ ► does so you know we will touch on this hopefully in later episodes about the apple 2 and about the
00:31:33 ◼ ► fact that the apple 2 you know we're in this we're in 77 now that the apple 2 exists way into the life
00:31:40 ◼ ► of the mac right the mac comes in 84 but the apple 2 continues and continues and continues into that period
00:31:47 ◼ ► of time yeah apple will have a hit on its hands and then will almost inexplicably repeatedly try to end
00:31:54 ◼ ► its life and fail because it's kind of unkillable and it's a huge part of the story and i i should also say
00:32:01 ◼ ► at the end of our single episode about apple at 50 in the very beginning that preceded this series i ended
00:32:09 ◼ ► that with a cliffhanger about apple hiring its first ceo and i think it's really hilarious that
00:32:15 ◼ ► somehow we've gotten to the end of this series and we haven't even reached that point michael scott
00:32:19 ◼ ► is nowhere to be found until michael scott is not here but he will be in a future series about this
00:32:25 ◼ ► because that is one of the next big things that happens is apple has to become a company in a bunch
00:32:34 ◼ ► of ways that it isn't even now it needs to become the new apple it needs some things we haven't talked
00:32:43 ◼ ► about that some of that has happened by the time of the west coast computer fair but i i just want to
00:32:47 ◼ ► spend more time with it they have to hire a ceo they need a new logo right so like the apple logo we
00:32:53 ◼ ► know has to be a part of this story and then the growing pains of a company that is has transformed