Woz had already begun thinking about the next version of the machine, so they started calling their current model the Apple I. Jobs and Woz would drive up and down Camino Real trying to get the electronics stores to sell it. In addition to the fifty sold by the Byte Shop and almost fifty sold to friends, they were building another hundred for retail outlets. Not surprisingly, they had contradictory impulses: Wozniak wanted to sell them for about what it cost to build them, but Jobs wanted to make a serious profit. Jobs prevailed. He picked a retail price that was about three times what it cost to build the boards and a 33% markup over the $500 wholesale price that Terrell and other stores paid. The result was $666.66. “I was always into repeating digits,” Wozniak said. “The phone number for my dial-a-joke service was 255-6666.” Neither of them knew that in the Book of Revelation 666 symbolized the “number of the beast,” but they soon were faced with complaints, especially after 666 was featured in that year’s hit movie, The Omen. (In 2010 one of the original Apple I computers was sold at auction by Christie’s for $213,000.)

沃茲已經(jīng)開始思考下一代機(jī)器了，所以他們把當(dāng)時的機(jī)型稱為AppleI（蘋果I型）。喬布斯和沃茲不停地奔走于國王大道，希望電子商店能夠出售自己的電腦。除了賣給ByteShop的50臺以及賣給朋友的50臺，他們又開始生產(chǎn)100臺供給零售商店。果然，他們兩人之間又有了矛盾：沃茲想以成本價出售，而喬布斯想好好賺一筆。喬布斯贏了。他設(shè)定了一個零售價，差不多是成本的3倍，在特雷爾和其他商店支付的500美元批發(fā)價的基礎(chǔ)上又上漲了33%，也就是666.66美元。“我一直都很喜歡重復(fù)的數(shù)字，”沃茲尼亞克說，“我的‘打電話聽笑話’服務(wù)的號碼是255-6666。”他們兩個都不知道的是，666是《圣經(jīng)·啟示錄》中“惡魔的數(shù)字”。不過很快他們就遭到了抗議，特別是在當(dāng)年大熱的電影《兇兆》重點(diǎn)突出了數(shù)字666之后。（2010年，一臺原版AppleI在佳士得的一場拍賣中以213000美元售出。）

The first feature story on the new machine appeared in the July 1976 issue of Interface, a now-defunct hobbyist magazine. Jobs and friends were still making them by hand in his house, but the article referred to him as the director of marketing and “a former private consultant to Atari.” It made Apple sound like a real company. “Steve communicates with many of the computer clubs to keep his finger on the heartbeat of this young industry,” the article reported, and it quoted him explaining, “If we can rap about their needs, feelings and motivations, we can respond appropriately by giving them what they want.”

這臺新機(jī)器的第一次專題報道出現(xiàn)在1976年7月的《界面》（Interface）雜志上，這是一本面向業(yè)余愛好者的雜志，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)停刊。喬布斯和朋友們還在家中動手組裝機(jī)器，但報道文章中已經(jīng)稱他為“市場總監(jiān)”和“前雅達(dá)利的私人顧問”了。這讓蘋果聽上去像個真正的公司。“史蒂夫與許多電腦俱樂部進(jìn)行交流，以掌握這一新興產(chǎn)業(yè)的脈搏，”報道中稱，并且還引用了喬布斯的解釋，“如果我們可以了解他們的需求、感受和動機(jī)，我們就可以作出正確的回應(yīng)，生產(chǎn)出他們所需要的產(chǎn)品。”

By this time they had other competitors, in addition to the Altair, most notably the IMSAI 8080 and Processor Technology Corporation’s SOL-20. The latter was designed by Lee Felsenstein and Gordon French of the Homebrew Computer Club. They all had the chance to go on display during Labor Day weekend of 1976, at the first annual Personal Computer Festival, held in a tired hotel on the decaying boardwalk of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Jobs and Wozniak took a TWA flight to Philadelphia, cradling one cigar box with the Apple I and another with the prototype for the successor that Woz was working on. Sitting in the row behind them was Felsenstein, who looked at the Apple I and pronounced it “thoroughly unimpressive.” Wozniak was unnerved by the conversation in the row behind him. “We could hear them talking in advanced business talk,” he recalled, “using businesslike acronyms we’d never heard before.”

那個時候，他們已經(jīng)有了阿爾泰之外的競爭者，其中最著名的是IMSAI8080和處理器科技公司（ProcessorTechnologyCorporation）的SOL-20。后者是由家釀計(jì)算機(jī)俱樂部的李·費(fèi)爾森施泰因和戈登·弗倫奇設(shè)計(jì)的。1976年的勞工節(jié)周末，第一屆年度個人電腦節(jié)在新澤西州的大西洋城舉行，活動地點(diǎn)在一座陳舊的酒店里，酒店位于當(dāng)時已經(jīng)開始破敗的木板路上。所有人都有機(jī)會展示自己的產(chǎn)品。喬布斯和沃茲尼亞克搭乘環(huán)球航空公司的航班前往費(fèi)城，他們將AppleI放在一只雪茄盒子里，沃茲正在開發(fā)的第二代樣機(jī)放在另一只盒子里。費(fèi)爾森施泰因就坐在他們后面一排，他看到AppleI后，稱之“十分平庸”這番評論讓沃茲失去了信心。“我們聽見他們在用很高深的商業(yè)術(shù)語講話他回憶說，“用的都是我們從沒有聽過的類似商業(yè)術(shù)語的縮略詞。”

Wozniak spent most of his time in their hotel room, tweaking his new prototype. He was too shy to stand at the card table that Apple had been assigned near the back of the exhibition hall. Daniel Kottke had taken the train down from Manhattan, where he was now attending Columbia, and he manned the table while Jobs walked the floor to inspect the competition. What he saw did not impress him. Wozniak, he felt reassured, was the best circuit engineer, and the Apple I (and surely its successor) could beat the competition in terms of functionality. However, the SOL-20 was better looking. It had a sleek metal case, a keyboard, a power supply, and cables. It looked as if it had been produced by grown-ups. The Apple I, on the other hand, appeared as scruffy as its creators.

沃茲大多數(shù)時間都待在酒店房間里，研究他的新樣機(jī)。展覽大廳的后面有一張桌子被安排給了蘋果公司，沃茲太害羞了，根本沒勇氣姑在那里介紹產(chǎn)品。當(dāng)時在哥倫比亞大學(xué)就讀的科特基，從曼哈頓搭乘火車來到了這里，他堅(jiān)守在桌旁，喬布斯則四處走動觀察競爭對手的情況。他看到的東西并不能打動他。他確信，沃茲尼亞克是最好的電路工程師，AppleI（當(dāng)然也包括它的第二代）在功能上絕對可以擊敗所有對手。然而，SOL-20擁有更加迷人的外觀。它有一個造型優(yōu)美的金屬盒子，附帶鍵盤、電源以及線纜。看上去這才是成年人設(shè)計(jì)的產(chǎn)品。相反，AppleI就顯得和它的發(fā)明者一樣邋遢不堪。