Apple’s first computer in the 70s made a smart design choice

When Apple released its first personal computer, the Apple I, computer hardware just wasn’t something people owned. The Apple I came as a circuit board with no power supply, keyboard or monitor. However, since most Americans owned a television by 1976, integrated video display hardware would allow users to connect any television with RF connections. This ingenious and clever design choice made it possible for almost everyone to use the next big thing: computers.

By designing the Apple I to work with a traditional TV, he eliminated one of the major costs of purchasing a dedicated terminal or all-in-one device at the time, lowering the barrier to entry. The Apple I’s botched design comes from Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, who oversaw the development of the machine that put the company on the map, the Apple II. Wozniak, unlike current Apple executives, aimed to give the user full control of the machine. This was more evident with the Apple II, due to the Apple I’s short lifespan.

Through his plug-and-play design philosophy, Wozniak opened the world of computing to an astonishing number of people. This strategy would persist with the Apple II and would now be a built-in feature of most computers available on the consumer market. The ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 – which has undergone many changes recently – and even the Amiga and Atari ST were capable of connecting to a TV, even until the 1990s when monitors had become more available.

The Apple I was an incredibly short-lived product. 200 units were made, while approximately 66 have survived to this day, and one was donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. These machines now cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Compared to the price of an original Macintosh, the old machine is now an expensive piece of history. The Apple I was one of the first personal computers to allow components to be connected to a television. At the time, computers came in bulky all-in-one designs that removed much of the complexity of operating them.

However, it also eliminated much of the flexibility PCs have today and drove up costs. The less expensive RF modulator has completely obliterated the requirements for a dedicated composite monitor, which could rack up almost $600. In 1977, the Commodore PET cost $795 ($4,380 in 2026) and Tandy sold its TRS-80 for $599 (about $3,300 in 2026). Connecting them to a TV would require the user to actively modify the hardware, with future revisions introducing the RF connector for easier connections. Even with its limited availability, Apple had the upper hand on the foundation it laid.

The Apple II cemented the company as a player in the field. Wozniak’s philosophy drove the machine largely, with accessories and additional hardware that could be installed according to the user’s needs. His deep understanding of electronics and circuits allowed him to bring color to the Apple II after the idea was given to him by Pong creator Al Alcorn. When the Apple II was released in 1977, just a year after the Apple I, it was quickly swept aside in favor of a more powerful device. Although Apple sold a monitor for the Apple II, it easily connected to the TV using an RF modulator.

Apple had difficulty convincing the FCC to approve its own, so it opted to allow the market to provide it, thereby avoiding any legal problems. Today, turning your PC into a TV gaming console is as easy as using an HDMI cable. In fact, Valve’s recently released Steam Machine and the upcoming potentially gaming-changing Xbox “hybrid” Helix project have brought (or are bringing) PCs to TVs, as Microsoft and Valve try to figure out how to make it work again.