A prophetic Apple II manual, signed by Steve Jobs, sold at auction for nearly $800,000

The life and history of the late Steve Jobs has attracted millions. The enigmatic technologist who co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak was known for his direct leadership style, somewhat abrasive temper, and perfectionistic personality.

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In February 2021, a five-decade-old hand-written and signed job application submitted by Jobs in 1973 went up for auction when it first sold for more than US$175,000 at a 2018 auction. In another Apple-themed auction in December 2020, Wozniak’s handwritten schematics and programming instructions A prototype of the Apple II home computer sold for US$630,272, while a fully operational Apple-1 computer, the brainchild of both Jobs and Wozniak, sold for US$736,862.

See a trend here?

So it is completely understandable that another artifact of Jobs sells for close to US$800,000. Said artifact is an Apple II manual signed by Jobs himself; The 196-page guide details the technical architecture and operation of the Apple II and features a fold-out schematic of the computer’s main logic board.

Iconic Apple co-founder, Julian, your generation is the first to evolve with computers. Go change the world! Steven Jobs, 1980′ and Apple’s angel investor and other CEO, Mike Markkula, 1980.

When signed, Jobs and Markcula were in the United Kingdom promoting Apple, cultivating it from a Cupertino start-up to a global phenomenon. It’s worth noting that, in the 1980s, Microsoft was booming thanks to its low-cost personal computers, dwarfing the stumbling block Apple, which had actually pioneered the personal computing industry with the Apple I.

The recipient, possibly Julian, was the son of an entrepreneur who negotiated exclusive distribution rights for Apple products in the United Kingdom and later became the first managing director of Apple (UK) Limited.

Apple II price

Although the Apple I was primarily for hobbyists, with fewer than 200 units produced, the Apple II (launched in 1977) really “changed the world”, as Jobs wrote, with nearly 6 million units. By giving homes and businesses their first taste of personal computing. A gamechanger for the company’s global position as a tech leader, Apple II’s revenue supported Apple’s successful flotation and paved the way for the largest tech IPO of the era.

Apple first sold shares to the public on 12 December 1980 at US$22 per share. The stock has split four times; Three times on 2-for-1, and one split on 7-for-1, which means you’ll receive two shares for every one share, or seven shares in that one case. After Steve Jobs resigned from Apple in 1985, the company experienced a slowdown in creativity and innovation where management focused more on profits. The company lost a significant portion of market share to rival Microsoft during that time. However, Jobs officially returned to Apple in 1997 and saved the company from bankruptcy.

Jobs was responsible for the company’s design innovation as well as technological advancements involving architectural designer Jony Ive until his resignation in 2011, shortly before he died of liver cancer on October 5, 2011.

Looking back, Jobs’ inscription was prophetic, with Generation X-ers such as Google co-founder Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk really leading the way and technology. With “We’re Changing the World”. The first to “grow up with computers”.