The Apple II from Commodore? It almost happened

IDG News Service - (Editor's note: this story was updated at about 6:15 p.m. EST on Dec. 13 to remove the original wording stating that Commodore International's rejection of Apple's proposal that it resell the Apple II occurred in 1982.)

Back in the dawn of the PC era, Commodore International rejected a proposal from legendary Apple Inc. founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs to resell the Apple II computer. Luckily for Apple, as it turned out, Commodore instead decided to depend on its own systems, eventually including the revolutionary Commodore 64.

Apple was just one of several companies to approach influential Commodore at the time to sell PCs, said Wozniak during an energetic panel discussion at a 25th anniversary celebration of the Commodore 64 held Monday at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. "We had this Apple II that we thought was so far ahead of the rest in features -- color, graphics, sound, games -- the computer was the whole deal," Wozniak said.

With no money to build thousands of the Apple machines, Wozniak and Jobs approached Commodore about distributing the Apple II. "Chuck Peddle from Commodore came to the garage, and he was one of about three people we showed the Apple II prototype," Wozniak said.

As struggling 20-year-olds with zero savings and no business experience, the idea of a stable job at Commodore comforted them, Wozniak said. "Steve [Jobs] started saying all we want to do was offer [Apple II] for a few hundred thousand dollars, and we will get jobs at Commodore, we'll get some stock, and we'll be in charge of running the program," Wozniak said.

Commodore rejected the idea, preferring instead to develop its own simpler, lower-cost, black-and-white machine without the pizazz of the Apple II, Wozniak said. Commodore could do it more quickly and thought at the time that would be a better course for the company, he said.

In 1982, when the Commodore 64 debuted, Commodore started selling the PC for $599 and managed to eventually cut the price to $199. Apple PCs were more expensive, noted fellow panelist Jack Tramiel, former chairman of Commodore International. "We made machines for the masses; they made machines for the classes," Tramiel said, teasing Wozniak.

Tramiel said it was necessary to drive prices down in order to cut down the competition. Keeping prices high invites competition, Tramiel said.

Ultimately, Apple managed to survive the threat posed by Commodore, which filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and liquidated its assets, even after becoming the first to sell a million PCs.

"But we gave Apple a few chips for free," Tramiel said.