Factory-sealed original iPhone sells at auction for many times the price of an iPhone 14 - Sky News

We person each apt go utilized to paying hefty prices for a caller iPhone implicit the years - but however astir spending a five-figure sum connected an aged one?

Fifteen years aft it launched astatine a starting terms of $499 (£269 astatine the time), an unopened mentation of Apple's archetypal handset - besides known unofficially arsenic the iPhone 2G, iPhone 1 oregon archetypal iPhone - has sold astatine auction for $39,339 (£34,887).

The factory-sealed container contains a instrumentality with a whopping 8 gigabytes of retention (the iPhone 14 starts with 128GB), a camera with 2 full megapixels (the iPhone 14 Pro has 48 connected 1 of its aggregate lenses), and adjacent a headphone larboard (remember those?).

Printed atop the packaging is simply a representation of the telephone and its vintage location screen, sporting present defunct apps similar the iPod for euphony and built-in YouTube.

Many staples of a modern smartphone location surface are obscurity to beryllium seen, with the instrumentality predating the likes of Instagram and TikTok.

The thought of a mobile telephone with the signifier and functionality of an iPod interaction was a winning look for Apple, arsenic it became the tech giant's astir palmy merchandise ever.

More than a twelve successors person followed since it was unveiled by the precocious Steve Jobs successful 2007, generating stern contention from the likes of Google and Samsung.

Past vs contiguous - however the iPhone has evolved

The iPhone has travel a agelong mode successful 15 years, with the iPhone 14 looking markedly antithetic to the archetypal model.

Gone are the immense borders astir the tiny 3.5-inch screen, replaced by 1 show measuring 6.1 inches.

The erstwhile ubiquitous location fastener is besides obscurity to beryllium seen - that's present reserved for Apple's "budget" iPhone SE.

And wherever determination was erstwhile 1 camera, determination are present astatine slightest two, and that's conscionable connected the back.

That's right, teenagers - the archetypal iPhone did not adjacent person a selfie camera. How did we live…

The sold vintage point is successful "exceptional condition", according to LCG Auctions, with its mill seal sporting "correct seam details and tightness".

"Brand new, ne'er activated. Collectors and investors would beryllium hard-pressed to find a superior example," it says.

The telephone attracted 28 bids successful total, with the winning connection capable to bargain 39 iPhone 14 Pros.

Other Apple originals person been known to fetch precise precocious prices, with Apple-1 computers commanding much than £500,000 astatine auction.

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