A “beyond rare” prototype of the first Apple Macintosh is up for auction, with bids starting at $99,995.
The seller claims the computer is the only example to feature a 5.25in “Twiggy” floppy disk drive, which had featured in the Apple Lisa computer.
The production version of the first Apple Mac shipped in 1984 with a 3.5in drive after production problems forced the firm to scrap the bigger format.
Nobody has yet met the starting bid on the rare machine, which is being sold via eBay by a Canadian going by the user name “Woz”.
“This is the only one!,” he said, pointing out the listing includes the original keyboard, mouse and power lead.
“The computer and keyboard are authentic and original, dated 1982-83. The computer and its keyboard were acquired together and complete, and have not been pieced together from miscellaneous parts.”
He added that he is nothing to do with Steve Wozniak, Apple’s cofounder and early engineering genius.
“I am not Steve Wozniak, nor am I attempting to impersonate him”, he said.
“My sincere apologies to you Steve, if this listing causes you any problems.”
The first Apple Mac was introduced on 24 January 1984 at $2,495, making it the first computer to make graphical user interfaces affordable to middle class homes and small businesses. It had an 8Mhz processor and 128K of RAM.
Lack of memory quickly proved a limitation on graphical performance, and was boosted to 512K in the second model. The 128K version was discontinued in October 1985.
In 2010, one the first computers ever sold by Apple from Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage, an Apple-1, cionsisting of a naked circuit board and instructions, was sold by Christie’s auction house in London for more than £133,000.
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