The first iPhone was originally on sale for US$599 (RM2,576) in 2007 and offered early Apple adopters a 3.5-inch screen with a 2-megapixel camera, plus 4GB and 8GB storage options, internet capabilities and iTunes. — LCG Auctions
A tech relic from the past has risen from the dead and has the potential to rake in some serious bank.
An unopened first-generation iPhone from 2007 hit the auction block last Thursday – with an estimated value of US$50,000 (RM215,000), according to reports from CNN and CBS News.
The first iPhone was originally on sale for US$599 (RM2,576) in 2007 and offered early Apple adopters a 3.5-inch screen with a 2-megapixel camera, plus 4GB and 8GB storage options, internet capabilities and iTunes. It had no app store, ran on a 2G network and was exclusive to AT&T’s network, according to CNN.
Cosmetic tattoo artist Karen Green was gifted the 8GB version and never broke the seal, according to her appearance on the daytime television program “The Doctor & The Diva” in 2019. An appraiser on the show valued the phone at US$5,000 (RM21,507) at that time because of the 8GB and it’s original packaging.
“In 2007, I got a new job and my friends bought me the latest, newest first-generation iPhone,” Green said. “It had all these neat things on there to do a new job, like a calendar.”
She said she didn’t open the box because she had just gotten a new phone. “I didn’t want to get rid of my phone, and I figured, ‘It’s an iPhone, so it will never go out of date.’”
Little did she know, several new iterations of the iPhone would be released year after year. Now, Apple is selling the iPhone 14.
Since then, another unopened first-generation iPhone like Green’s auctioned off for over $39,000 in a listing by LCG Auctions that closed in October, according to CNN.
LCG Auctions is also listing Green’s phone, with bidding opening at $2,500. It has received two bids so far and the auction will be open until Feb. 19. LCG Auctions expects it will reach $50,000, according to CBS News.
Speaking at Apple’s annual Macworld expo in 2007, then-Apple boss Steve Jobs first introduced the first of its kind phone on Jan. 9, 2007, opening his presentation with: “We’re going to make some history together today.” Jobs called the new smartphone a “revolutionary mobile phone” that will feature an iPod, phone and what he called an “Internet communicator.”
“It’s bad out there today,” said Jobs of mobile Web browsers. “It’s a real revolution to bring real Web browsing to a phone.”
It was available for purchase about five months later and, per CBS News, it quickly became Apple’s most successful product, according to LCG.
Apple enthusiasts will have until February 19 to bid on the phone. – Pennlive.com/Tribune News Service
