Apple II

“By 1983, the Apple II would become the first computer to sell a million units.”

“Radio Shack and Commodore had made a calculated decision. They wanted to be appliance companies. They kept their technical specifications secret, hoping to monopolize the market for peripherals and software.”

“In today's money, they'd lost at least a billion dollars on the Apple III, all of it subsidized by the Apple II's success.”

“Job's closed system only worked because Wozniak's open system funded them. The Apple II kept the company alive for years. Its profits bankrolled everything that came after. Those eight expansion slots Wozniak fought for Became the financial engine that allowed…”

“That was the power of the open architecture. Every third-party company that made a product for the Apple II became, in effect, a marketing arm for Apple. Every ad they bought, every review they got, every innovation they created made the Apple II more valuable…”

“VisiCalc could only run on the Apple II. And this wasn't because of some brilliant strategy. It was completely accidental. The Apple II just happened to be the only computer with everything VisiCalc needed. Enough RAM to hold the spreadsheet, a proper keyboard…”