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Imagine a world where the Apple II had a 6800 later upgraded to 6809...

It wouldn't have happened because the 6809 wasn't binary compatible with the 6800.

So?

Because none of the existing software would work. The idea of running a Rosetta-like feature on an 8-bit CPU isn't feasible. The Apple II eventually received an upgraded processor, the 65816, which was compatible with the 6502.

In those days nobody cared about binary compatibility. If you had an assembler and the source code you were all set.

Though a problem, as you point out, it still happened. The 6800 based SWTPC was followed by 6809 machines what need to have all their software reassembled.

On the other side of the cpu wars, all those 8080 machines moving on the Z80s got to keep all their binary software, which happened again for IBM PCs and clones as those evolved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWTPC_6800

The 6809 was SOURCE compatible with the 6800 - you can assemble 6800 code on a 6809 assembler and it will run with perhaps very minor tweaks.

Then the Apple II would never have sold.

The 6800 was expensive versus the 6502--almost 10x (6502 was $25 when the 6800 was $175 which was already reduced from $360)!

Yes, I was thinking more from a tech perspective, not from a price perspective.

And yeah, there was a 6502 Apple I too!

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