Julian Brewer is the son of Michael Brewer who negotiated the exclusive distribution rights for Apple devices in the UK in the late 1970s. The flagship machine at the time was the Apple II. It was extraordinarily popular in the UK due to great press coverage and a strong marketing effort.
As a UK citizen that started school in the ’90s, I recall using an Apple computer for the first time at just four years old. Apple was waning in popularity by then due to poor management. Not to mentioned lacklustre products that had started to fall behind the competition. However, the school system was pretty slow to upgrade its hardware in the ’90s and Apple clung on in popularity for quite a while.
Julian was fortunate enough to meet Steve Jobs and the then CEO of Apple, Mike Markulla. Steve kindly signed the manual of Julian’s Apple II. A rarity for Jobs who didn’t usually agree to sign anything. But he left the most wonderful inscription on the manual:
Julian put up the manual for auction and the full description of his story, his connection with Apple and the events that followed are well worth a read. The sale netted a cool $787,484 too!
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Featured image: Museums Victoria via Unsplash