This ultra-rare iPhone with less storage than an Apple Watch just sold for $190,000

An original 2007 iPhone with just 4GB of storage, still in its box and cellophane wrapping, has wrapped up its 14-day auction and sold to the highest bidder for a whopping $190,372.80. The bidding began at $10,000 and LCG Auctions had estimated that it would fetch between $50,000 and $100,000—half of what the auction ended up at.

Last October an unopened original iPhone with 8GB of storage sold for a (still respectable) $39,339.60, and a few months before that another sold for $35,414. However, while Apple reportedly sold around six million iPhones in 2007, units in their original packaging are relatively rare. Even rarer are units like this one specced with 4GB of storage. At launch, the device was available with either 4GB or 8GB but the lower configuration was discontinued after a few months in favor of a larger 16GB edition.

Whoever won the auction would be wise to keep the device in its wrapping, because it will be well nigh unusable as an actual smartphone. Other than the paltry 4GB storage (compared to a minimum of 128GB for the iPhone 14) and a 3.5-inch screen (compared to 6.1 inches on the iPhone 14 and 6.7 inches on the iPhone 14 Plus), the original iPhone cannot even run iOS 4 and has no way to install third-party apps. And of course, as soon as it’s opened it will lose much of its $190,000 value.

The person selling the ‌‌iPhone‌‌ says they were a member of the iPhone’s original engineering team, according to LCG Auctions.