Throwback 1984 video: Jobs and Wozniak, talking about Apple’s humble beginnings

A little known YouTube video uploaded a few years ago has resurfaced, featuring vintage footage from a 1984 9-minutes documentary, where the co-founders of Apple Inc. discuss where they started, and what Apple was set to become.

While there is a disproportionate amount of old Apple videos on the Web, this particular clip contains a few special “Easter Eggs”, as viewers have been pointing out, some of which were not only related to contemporary facts, but to future ones as well, depending, of course, on your personal interpretation.

The voice over introduction is provided by Paul Terrell, owner of one of the first computer stores ever, in 1975. In the first few minutes, as the original Apple Rainbow logo dominates a field of black, Terrell unfolds a delightful account of the first time he entered in a business agreement with Jobs and Wozniak, for 50 fully assembled Apple I units, which were to be delivered within 30 days, to Terrell’s Byte Shop, in Mountain View CA. A number of those units still survived to this day, as highly coveted collector’s items.

Job’s Watch

Maybe we are reading too much into this, but it’s hard not to concur with Fast Company’s HArry McCracken, as he points out that early in the clip, a black and white photo of Steve Jobs features him wearing a wristwatch which is eerily similar to the Apple Watch. One has to wonder if that photograph had any influence at all over the process of designing the Apple Watch.

Three Colors

The first Apple computers didn’t come with a case. The first concepts, preceding the beige cases that eventually would become Apple’s signature for the first decade, included green, red and blue, for the Apple II. As the company went for beige, those colors versions were discarded, until Apple expanded its product line and color palette with the iPod. Over three decades later, Apple is now going full circle offering three color version for the MacBook: Silver, Gold and Space Grey.