The untold story behind Apple’s $13,000 operating system

In the common retelling of Apple’s history, it was Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s second computer, the Apple II, that launched their fledgling company toward stratospheric growth and financial success. The machine’s triumph as a single platform for business software, games, artistic tools — and more — set the stage for the later debut of the first Mac, and later OS X and iDevices.