The $595 Commodore 64 Put Custom Sound Beside RAM That Cost Apple Buyers Far More
Period sales material shows a giant launch-era gap, but the Apple II and C64 price tags came five years apart.
The C64’s 64K was right there in the sales pitch. Commodore put memory, graphics, and sound into a box priced below an earlier Apple II’s bare starting configuration.
The Apple price list printed in July 1977 BYTE ties $1,298 to 4K and $2,638 to 48K. Comparing the cheaper Apple configuration’s price with the expensive one’s memory would create a machine Apple never sold at that price.
These are nominal prices from different years, not a same-day shopping comparison. IEEE Spectrum’s engineering account describes in-house chip fabrication and rapid prototyping behind the 1982 machine. The cost advantage had engineering underneath it.
| Period offering | C64, 1982 | Apple II, 1977 |
|---|---|---|
| Listed starting price | $595 | $1,298 |
| RAM at that price | 64K | 4K |
| Higher Apple configuration | Not applicable | 48K for $2,638 |
| Expansion approach | Custom graphics and sound built in | Eight internal card slots |
Apple’s 1978 brochure calls out “Eight Accessory Expansion Slots.” It was selling room to grow as well as a computer.
The useful next comparison is the complete setup a buyer actually took home, including the storage and display that never fit neatly on the headline price tag.