June 1, 1978: Apple launches the Disk II floppy drive, one of many firm’s most essential peripherals ever.
The perfect floppy drive accessible on the time, Disk II solves the Apple II laptop’s most evident weak point — an absence of storage. It additionally helps set up Apple’s aptitude for good-looking revenue margins.
Apple Disk II launch
About six months after the Apple II launch in June 1977, the necessity for a greater storage choice grew to become apparent. In in the present day’s world of cloud storage and 1-terabyte iPhones, it’s unusual to contemplate a time when cupboard space was severely scarce on Apple machines. That definitely proved the case in 1977, nevertheless. At the moment, the one means for customers to retailer and entry packages and knowledge was utilizing unfathomably gradual cassette tapes.
The floppy disk offered a brand new resolution. IBM invented the 8-inch floppy within the early Nineteen Seventies. Shugart Associates later shrank it to five 1/4 inches, a dimension extra acceptable for private computer systems. The 5 1/4-inch floppy disk debuted in 1976, making it cutting-edge know-how when it arrived on the Apple II.
A formidable feat of engineering
Apple’s first investor (and second CEO) Mike Markkula advisable that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak construct a disk drive for the Apple II. His rationale? Offering a neater technique to retailer and entry packages would make the pc way more compelling to potential clients. On the time, many individuals remained not sure why they wanted a pc of their dwelling.
As Wozniak recalled in his autobiography, iWoz: Laptop Geek to Cult Icon, he wished to attend the Client Electronics Present in Las Vegas. Nevertheless, he was instructed that solely Apple advertising and marketing individuals have been attending.
“I requested Mike, if I completed the disk drive in time, may I am going to Vegas for the present?” Woz recalled. Markkula agreed.
Steve Wozniak and Randy Wiggington go into overdrive
This interchange passed off in late 1977, leaving Woz with an extremely tight, two-week window to get a prototype up and operating. To assist develop the required software program to get the Disk II working, Woz drafted Randy Wiggington, considered one of Apple’s very first staff. (Wiggington met Wozniak in the course of the Homebrew Laptop Membership days.)
Subsisting on takeout meals from McDonald’s, the pair obtained the primary Disk II working over the Christmas break. They labored day-after-day aside from December 25, which Wiggington took off. (Wozniak didn’t.)
Woz later described the Apple floppy drive because the most interesting piece of engineering he ever engaged in. Wiggington loved the problem, too.
“That was so superior, a lot enjoyable,” Wiggington instructed me after I interviewed him for my ebook The Apple Revolution. “It wasn’t about cash or fame, it was a nerdy accomplishment that we have been pleased with.”
They obtained to Las Vegas and, after a last-minute hiccup through which they by chance wiped the demo disk whereas making an attempt to create a backup, the CES debut labored completely.
Disk II turns into a giant hit for Apple
When it launched on at the present time in June 1978, the Disk II grew to become a fantastic success for Apple, boosting gross sales of the Apple II as Markkula had hoped. It arrived across the identical time as Apple DOS, Apple’s first official working system.
The Apple Disk II proved vital in two different methods as nicely. First, it grew to become obscenely worthwhile for the corporate — and helped set up the high-profit-margin technique that continues to at the present time. Utilizing solely $140 in parts, Apple manufactured a disk drive that bought for $495 throughout preorders. (It value $595 if purchased later.) Even at that value, although, the Disk II was essentially the most inexpensive floppy disk drive bought by any laptop firm on the time.
The second motive the Disk II was essential is as a result of it marked the tip of an period at Apple. Just like the Apple-1 and Apple II computer systems, this was a tool predominantly designed by Woz, with solely a workforce of two accountable for it. Afterward, Apple moved to a extra committee-driven method to its tech. Initially, this harm the corporate, ensuing within the disastrous Apple III.
Apple went on to provide six variants of the Disk II over the course of the Apple II’s lifetime: the Disk II, the Disk III, the DuoDisk, the Disk IIc, the UniDisk 5.25 and the Apple 5.25 Drive. Some model of a floppy disk drive continued to ship with Apple computer systems till the unique iMac arrived in 1998.
Do you bear in mind the Disk II? Go away your feedback beneath.
