and of course, mike markkula also helped a great deal.keting expert markkula was so impressed with the computer he took money he'd made at intel and provided capital in return for partnership. the threesome began developing the apple ii for a 1977 computer fair. we got the units the day before. we carved off the excess shavings on them, made them look presentable put our boards in, and it was a working apple ii. journalist michael moritz wrote a history of apple. he dcreshow plstolthshow. ey h logoshoted high than anne's. th h the iression of an established booth, though it was just ap with crpaper. it was as they say inicon valley, an ord of magnite more advanced than a card table. though oy threcomputers were at thfa the company soon took orders for 300. markkula's comment after the show was "we're going to be a $500 million company." that breakthrough led to full-scale production. the handful of employees moved to cupertino and launched an advertising campaign. apple ii's design set it apart from competitors. first, it was expandable.