First-generation iPhone up for auction, could fetch $50,000

An unopened first-generation iPhone from 2007 is coming up for auction this Thursday — with an estimated value of $50,000.

Originally on sale for $599, the first iPhone offered Apple’s early 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.

Cosmetic tattoo artist Karen Green received the 8GB version and it never broke the seal, according to her appearance on the daytime television show “The Doctor & The Diva” in 2019. An appraiser for the show valued the phone at $5,000 at era.

Since then, another unopened first-generation iPhone, like Green’s, has sold for more than $39,000 in an LCG Auctions listing that ended in October. LCG Auctions is also listing Green’s phone, with an opening bid of $2,500.

Green and LCG Auctions did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN .

The iPhone has changed the way billions of people around the world communicate, pay, work, take pictures and even wake up in the morning. It killed dozens of industries (camcorders, MP3 players, flip phones) and gave life to many more.

Speaking at Apple’s annual Macworld expo in 2007, then-Apple boss Steve Jobs opened his presentation with, “let’s make history together today.”

Jobs called the new smartphone a “revolutionary mobile phone” that would feature an iPod, a phone, and an “Internet communicator.”

“It’s bad out there today,” Jobs said of mobile browsers. “It’s a real revolution to bring real web browsing to a phone.”

Apple enthusiasts will have until February 19th to bid on the tech relic.

Source: CNN Brasil

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