When Steve Jobs first founded Apple on April 1 1976, many would have considered his vision for the company a practical joke.

The idea that one day Apple would dominate the market for mobile electronics, with over 100 million iPods alone sold worldwide, may have seemed far-fetched to some.

Apple founder Steve Jobs

But as consumers eagerly look forward to their next generation of computers, collectors now have the chance to look back and pick up a piece of technological history.

Christie's has announced the sale of an Apple-1, their original model, to be auctioned on November 23 with an estimated price of £150,000.

This was the first generation of home computers to be produced by Apple, and was originally sold from the suburban garage the company called home.

It originally came with a memory of 8k, slightly less than a modern calculator and 524,000 times smaller than the Apple computers of today. In real terms you would need 625 of them to store a single MP3.

And yet the item holds a fascination for many who see it as an important piece of computer history. The first Apple Mac Plus (a descendant of the Apple-1) given as a gift to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry sold last year at auction for $8,260, although Trekkies may well have outnumbered computer enthusiasts amongst the bidders. 

With the iPod and iPhone Apple have changed our cultural landscape, and every recent product launch has seen overnight queues with Apple devotees desperate to get their hands on the newest technology.

This historic Apple-1 is still in its original box, with an instruction manual and letter signed by Jobs himself. As a home computer it may not get you very far, but as a significant cultural artefact it could prove to be a hit with collectors and canny investors alike. Just don't try to play Angry Birds on it.

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