Steve Jobs brainchild sells for 300 times its original price
First-generation Apple iPhone sold at auction in the US for an unheard-of sum of more than $190,000. A device launched by Steve Jobs in 2007 with the promise of “reinventing the telephone” sold under the hammer for 300 times its original price.
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The 4GB model, originally purchased for $599, was still in its original packaging and in exceptional condition, the auction announcement said. The 2007 Apple iPhone went under the hammer for $190,372.80, which turned out to be more than three hundred times more than the original price of the device, writes The Guardian. And the estimate, according to Business Insider, was 50-100 thousand dollars.
The auction house LCG Auctions described the device as a “high-end popular collectible” and an “extremely rare” gadget.
A total of 28 bids were submitted for the auction after an initial bid of $10,000.
In February, LCG Auctions sold another first generation iPhone for $63,356. Another firm, Wright Auctions, sold the first generation iPhone for $40,320 in March.
LCG auctioneers called the phone the “holy grail” among iPhone collectors due to its extreme rarity. It's rare to find a first generation iPhone without display damage or broken buttons.
«Despite the massive media coverage our previous sales have received worldwide, and the hundreds of contacts we've had with consumers who thought they had a factory-sealed original iPhone, this is the only 4GB factory-sealed version,» Mark Montero, founder of LCG Auctions, said in a press release on Monday. “Based on our recent record sales and the fact that the 4GB model is probably 20 times rarer than the 8GB version, we're not surprised it set a new price record, but breaking the $190,000 mark was pretty surprising.»
The auction website notes that the seller was part of Apple's original engineering team when the iPhone was first released.
This year marks 16 years since then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco, California on January 9, 2007, stating, «Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.»
Steve Jobs began his presentation by saying, «Today we will create history together.” Jobs called the new smartphone a «revolutionary mobile phone» that would feature an iPod, a phone, and what he called an «internet communicator.»
As The Guardian recalls, the iPhone quickly became Apple's most successful product and was named the invention of 2007 by Time magazine.
The 4GB model was discontinued shortly after launch due to declining overall sales and the release of an 8GB model. Consumers favored the 8GB model, and shortly after that, Apple discontinued 4GB phones, so they're less common.