Filed under: The Woz
Woz: How it all began
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and inventor of the Apple I and II, talks with the BBC about starting Apple in 1976. "Everything was ... thinking about the good of humanity," he said. His starting salary? $24,000 a year: maybe a quarter of what an Apple engineer makes today.
For those of you new to the Apple universe, this is an entertaining 10-minute brief of how it all began.
Woz has probably told this story a million times, but he talks about it with the same enthusiasm as if it happened yesterday. He discusses the Silicon Valley homebrew movement, Microsoft, and the perceived animosity between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
Also -- and totally off-topic -- Woz wears a giant watch. I mean, seriously. Huge.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex L. said 2:36PM on 6-21-2008
$24,000 adjusted salary?
If it's not an adjusted figure, that could hardly be considered "maybe a quarter of what an Apple engineer makes today".
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Herard said 2:51PM on 6-21-2008
That would be his nixi tube watch, he's been wearing that for a while now.
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Rhywun said 4:05PM on 6-21-2008
Hey, thanks for pointing that out. It sent me on a long journey around Wikipedia including the history of various display devices...
Gerard said 6:13PM on 6-21-2008
Yeah I have always wanted one but 400 bucks is a lot for a novelty watch, you can buy em here:
http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/
Jeremy said 2:43PM on 6-21-2008
$24,000 per year in 1976, adjusted for inflation, is equivalent to well over $90,000 per year now. So it's slightly MORE than Apple engineers make now.
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Andrew said 3:35PM on 6-21-2008
Well, you are assuming that the unscientific and very unofficial quote you read about the other day is actually true.
krye said 3:16PM on 6-21-2008
You'd think that Woz would get sick and tired of talking about the same thing over and over and over again. But he never passes up a moment to talk about the good 'ol days. Amazing.
And, for the record, I think $24,000 30+ years ago was some serious scratch.
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TD said 3:17PM on 6-21-2008
But at that stage, I don't think it was about the money!
Tom said 2:51PM on 6-21-2008
lol, reddit had this before tuaw. what a surprise. :)
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Sean said 3:00PM on 6-21-2008
He spoke at my former university earlier this year and did a book/Mac signing. I got to shake his hand and he was wearing that ridiculously large binary watch!
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Lars Hoel said 3:34PM on 6-21-2008
You can see the Nixie watch here:
http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/
I saw Woz wearing it when he did his NPR interview in 2006. Very cool, in a retro-nerd sorta way.
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Robot Kitten Face said 4:25PM on 6-21-2008
Yeah, $24,000 in 1976 was nothing to sneeze at. I didn't even make that much when I started my first "real" job in 1996.
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Lustigson said 3:00AM on 6-23-2008
Ironically, I got a Microsoft commercial before the clip. ;)
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Dan said 9:50PM on 6-21-2008
It would appear that this is actually a segment on a money series about Bill Gates and Microsoft.
The title:
"The Money Programme: Bill Gates"
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Gilbert Tang said 5:23AM on 6-22-2008
Actually, when adjusted for inflation his salary was slightly better than what Apple engineers make today: approx. $89,000.
See: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/10/at-glassdoor-find-out-how-much-people-really-make-at-google-microsoft-yahoo-and-everywhere-else/
24,000 1976 dollars is equivalent to about 92,500 of today's dollars.
See: http://www.halfhill.com/inflation.html
Needless to say, Steve was doing just fine.
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