In January 2007, Steve Jobs showed off the first iPhone. He said that Apple’s new product would “make history.” The sleek new device had a touchscreen, a 2-megapixel camera, visual voicemail, and a real web browser. Dan Farber wrote for ZDNet, “If the iPhone works as well as Jobs’ demo, it will be a hit.”
The iPhone was a big hit, and Apple did make history by changing the way mobile phones are used.
In fact, the first iPhone is so well-known that an unopened first-generation iPhone sold at auction last week for $35,414!
The Model A1203 device came sealed from the factory. It had 8 GB of storage space. The auction house RR Auction said that the box has a life-size picture of an iPhone with 12 icons on the screen, which shows that it is from the first batch of iPhones made. In 2007, Apple added a thirteenth icon for iTunes. In the middle of 2007, the first 8 GB iPhone went on sale for $599.
The device was part of RR Auction’s “Apple, Jobs, and Computer Hardware” auction, which had more than 70 items up for bid. On August 18, the auction ended.
The auction also had an Apple-1 circuit board that Steve “Woz” Wozniak soldered by hand and that is said to have helped Apple get its first big order. The price of the prototype was $677,196.
A 5GB Apple iPod from the first generation that had never been opened sold for $25,000.
