Manufacturer

Apple Computers (US)

Model

Apple II
It was often written as ][ rather than II.

Date Launched

June 1977

Price

£900 approx.

Microprocessor type

MOSTEK 6502 @ 1 MHz

ROM size

16 kilobytes

Standard RAM

4 kilobytes

Maximum RAM

48 kilobytes

Keyboard type

Typewriter style

Supplied language

Integer BASIC and disassembler

Text resolution

40 x 24 characters

Graphics resolution

320 x 192 pixels

Colours available

16

Sound

Monophonic through internal speaker

Cassette load speed

300 baud, but commonly used with disc drives

Dimensions (mm)
Weight (grams)

460 x 385 x 155
Not known

Special features

Had eight internal expansion slots.

Good points

Colour and high resolution graphics, which its rival the Commodore PET did not have.

Bad points

Fairly expensive.
Only integer arithmetic available to BASIC.

How successful?

Sold very well, probably around half a million in total. The Apple II and its direct derivatives remained in production until 1992.

Comments

There had been an Apple I, of which about 175 had been sold at $666.66 each, but it was supplied as a bare board without even a keyboard:

An Apple I in a wooden case.

As the successor to Apple's first computer, the model II added the graphics and sound missing from the original.
The Apple II could be connected to a domestic television and use a cassette recorder for storage, or a matching monitor (as illustrated above) and floppy disc drives were available.
Later the models II+ and IIe added floating point BASIC and up to 64 KB RAM as standard.
The Apple II's styling was designed to make it look like a friendly domestic appliance rather than a complicated piece of hardware.
However it was also popular as a business machine and in 1979 the first ever spreadsheet program, Visicalc, was released for the Apple II.