Steve Jobs had the vision for the first truly mass-market “personal” computer and Steve Wozniak gave that vision form. Their first Apple computer was more a bare-bones kit designed for electronic hobbyists,  nevertheless introducing many of the features that would make the second generation model so appealing. The Apple II was the first computer to come fully assembled, with its own power supply, keyboard and monitor. This no doubt contributed to its popularity and helped the Apple II series to sell more than ten million units over its 15 year production run.

On this day, June 15, in 1977, the Apple II went on sale, priced at $1,298 for 4 kilobytes of RAM and $2,398 for 48 kilobytes.

The Apple II anticipated the plug-and-play future, allowing for a multitude of memory cards, expansion slots and peripheral devices to connect to and operate with the the computer. Hardware, too, could be switched out, and hard disks replaced with larger ones. The Apple II set the standard for PCs of all subsequent models.