It basically was. HP had what we'd recognize as 80s-era 16-bit micro as early as 1972-1973. It just never occurred to them to knock an order of magnitude off

It basically was. HP had what we'd recognize as 80s-era 16-bit micro as early as 1972-1973. It just never occurred to them to knock an order of magnitude off the price tag and add a speaker. It took someone of Woz's stature to put a lot of very obvious things together and make it accessible at a price the masses could handle.