June 1, 1978: Apple launches the Disk II floppy drive, one of many firm’s most necessary peripherals ever.
One of the best floppy drive out there on the time, Disk II solves the Apple II pc’s most obtrusive 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 at the moment’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, nonetheless. At the moment, the one method for customers to retailer and entry applications and information was utilizing unfathomably gradual cassette tapes.
The floppy disk offered a brand new resolution. IBM invented the 8-inch floppy within the early Seventies. Shugart Associates later shrank it to five 1/4 inches, a measurement extra applicable 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 powerful feat of engineering
Apple’s first investor (and second CEO) Mike Markkula really helpful that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak construct a disk drive for the Apple II. His rationale? Offering a neater strategy to retailer and entry applications would make the pc way more compelling to potential prospects. On the time, many individuals remained not sure why they wanted a pc of their house.
As Wozniak recalled in his autobiography, iWoz: Pc Geek to Cult Icon, he wished to attend the Client Electronics Present in Las Vegas. Nevertheless, he was instructed that solely Apple advertising individuals had 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 happened in late 1977, leaving Woz with an extremely tight, two-week window to get a prototype up and working. To assist develop the required software program to get the Disk II working, Woz drafted Randy Wiggington, one in all Apple’s very first staff. (Wiggington met Wozniak through the Homebrew Pc Membership days.)
Subsisting on takeout meals from McDonald’s, the pair received the primary Disk II working over the Christmas break. They labored day-after-day apart 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 once I interviewed him for my guide The Apple Revolution. “It wasn’t about cash or fame, it was a nerdy accomplishment that we had been pleased with.”
They received to Las Vegas and, after a last-minute hiccup during which they by chance wiped the demo disk whereas trying to create a backup, the CES debut labored completely.
Disk II turns into a giant hit for Apple
When it launched on this present day in June 1978, the Disk II grew to become an awesome 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 effectively. First, it grew to become obscenely worthwhile for the corporate — and helped set up the high-profit-margin technique that continues to this present day. 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 worth, although, the Disk II was essentially the most reasonably priced floppy disk drive bought by any pc firm on the time.
The second cause the Disk II was necessary 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 group of two accountable for it. Afterward, Apple moved to a extra committee-driven strategy to its tech. Initially, this damage 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 keep in mind the Disk II? Go away your feedback under.
