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December 25, 1977: Steve Wozniak spends the vacations constructing a prototype of the Disk II, the Apple II’s revolutionary floppy disk drive.
“I labored all day, all night time, by means of Christmas and New Yr’s making an attempt to get it performed,” Wozniak recollects in his autobiography, iWoz. “[Early Apple employee] Randy Wiggington, who was truly attending Homestead Excessive, the varsity Steve and I had graduated from, helped me rather a lot on that venture.”
Wiggington takes December 25 off. Woz doesn’t.
The top to a terrific 12 months for Steve Wozniak
1977 was a terrific 12 months for Woz, in all probability the artistic spotlight of his profession. It began out with Apple formally incorporating as Apple Laptop Co. in January, with Wozniak and Steve Jobs listed as co-founders.
With enterprise funding behind them, Apple went on to debut the Apple II at April’s West Coast Laptop Faire, the San Francisco Bay Space’s first ever private laptop conference. The pc went on sale two months later in June, priced at $1,298 for a base unit — the equal of $5,815 in 2021.
The Apple II proved a hit, bringing in $770,000 in income the primary 12 months. Nevertheless, the Disk II’s significance can’t be understated. It addressed the issue of lack of storage on the pc. It additionally offered a greater method for customers to retailer and entry applications and information than the gradual cassette tapes used on the time.
The floppy disk was nonetheless a comparatively new know-how. Invented within the early Seventies by IBM, the unique 8-inch floppies had been shrunk down to five 1/4-inches by Shugart Associates in 1976.
A good deadline for Disk II
Apple’s first investor and (later) second CEO Mike Markkula really helpful that Wozniak construct a disk drive for the Apple II. He stated the accent would make the pc extra compelling to prospects. Markkula figured individuals needed professional causes to purchase an Apple II, slightly than simply the enjoyment of proudly owning a pc.
Woz wound up working over Christmas to complete the system. Each he and Apple needed it prepared for the Client Electronics Present in January. Whereas Woz labored on the {hardware}, Wiggington helped develop the required software program to get the Disk II up and working.
Ultimately, the pair hit their tight deadline, and the Disk II went on sale the next June. The Disk II grew to become obscenely worthwhile for Apple. It price simply $140 in elements, however bought for $595. Even at that value, it got here in as essentially the most reasonably priced floppy disk drive bought by a pc firm.
Thanks partially to the Disk II, Apple introduced in $7.9 million in 1978, and a large $49 million the 12 months after that. Now, that’s a Christmas properly spent!
Completely happy holidays, everybody!
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