Lack of Money, Resources Guided Early Apple Innovations

Apple Computer did not begin with a surge of investment capital or resources. In fact, the company's earliest systems owed their simplicity to a lack of support and choices, according to the company's co-founder. Steve Wozniak related to the MILCOM 2010 plenary address audience that not having vast financial or technical resources helped focus system development on simple interfaces and components. He noted that, when he and Steve Jobs were designing the Apple 1, other computer kits for the most part featured large components and static memory. Apple opted for dynamic memory and small, simpler components built around a keyboard, not a big box. This followed Wozniak's design philosophy that had evolved over his years of electrical engineering and innovation. "My advantage was that I had very little money, so I had to design things that cost very little money," Wozniak related. "It forced me to come up with good solutions."