Olde iPhone prototypes show up on Ebay (Skankphone - Newton 3000)

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Update: It looks like someone (Apple?) has taken the auction offline:

 

It looks like someone got their mitts on a piece of technology history over at 1 Infinite Loop. Someone is selling some prototype iPhones with a wacky pre-iPhone type of OS on it. One of the iPhones actually even works. Check out more photos and a description below.

 

Original Ebay posting

Here is a quite rare and collectable example of iPhone prototypes, one even running a beta OS.  Only one of the phones works however. Neither unit says "iPhone" on them anywhere, or list the storage capacity which is interesting. I did some research on the serial numbers, it appears they were both manufactured about 6 months before the release of the iPhone.

Phone #1:
-Powers on OK - GSM service works
-Plastic matte screen (see pics)
-Serial number YM649xxxxxx which corresponds to a factory in China, manufactured week 49 of the year 2006.
-Runs iPhone OS 03.06.01_G (iPhone Launch OS 1.0 was version 03.11.02_G)
-Good cosmetic condition

Phone #2:
-Doesn't turn on (tried leaving on charger for awhile, along with various reset procedures)
-Glass screen
-Serial number YM650xxxxxx which corresponds to a factory in China, manufactured week 50 of the year 2006. (The iPhone was announced on Jan 6 2007 and release June 29 2007.)
-I replaced the battery and still doesn't work.  Currently apart right now, can leave as-is for buyer or reassemble.
-Has various scratches, it is in fair cosmetic condition at best

The phone that works is pretty neat to use. It does make calls(with my ATT sim), and I can surf the net.  However when I did get to web pages they were the mobile versions, not the regular versions.  I can't figure out how to set a ringtone, it is just silent right now.   I can receive SMS but not compose my own, other than 5 included test messages. It doesn't sync to itunes. Camera seems to work. It has tons of testing options.

Also, the working phone has several interesting subtitles that alternate on the screens including:

[Skank is the new black]
[Nine parts perspiration]
[Say hello to the Newton MessagePad 3000]
[Skankphone]

The phones also comes with a really nice soft case for each.  I can guarantee that the working phone will work when you get it, but nothing else beyond that.  This auction includes the 2 phones, and the 2 cases, and that is it.  Shipping via USPS Priority Insured.  Paypal within 3 days.  Please ask any questions before bidding.

Comments (24)

VERY COOL! I wish I could see more of the trial OS, and some of the intermediate stages. Do you think that this OS was meant to be just for testing, or it was actually a consumer OS? If so, it would have made the iPhone a flop!

DAMN "Invalid CAPTCHA token"!!!

No way was that interface ever designed for the retail market. It's clearly a mid development snapshot -- they'd got the hardware in place, and were then working on getting the OS and apps functional.

as a software developer, gui is pretty much the last thing you worry about when designing an operating system. this is also why so far snow leopard seeds appear to be indifferent from leopard. like making a car, what range of colour to offer is pretty much one of the very last thing a manufacturer decides, probably.

i did take a look at the pictures, most of the functionalities were there, just that it's not been hooked up to the gui. one interesting point is the fact that the safari browser only supported mobile webpages-ie, wap- back then. that's quite interesting... luckily they mended that in time

I found what would appear to be their first appearance in the wild, as it were.

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-627449.html

Yep, he paid $300 in January for them

I remember reading that the hardware and software teams worked on the iPhone separately so that neither knew what exactly the final product would be. This seems to be a prototype of the hardware team since the software is extremely primitive.

Wow it's already $610 and still 2 days to go... Interesting... Will the buyer be able to sell it thousands of $ in a few years...?

You mean like all those other Apple prototypes that end up being sold on eBay? I would eat my Pippin if somebody got several thousand dollars for this thing in a few years.

$940 !!

By looks of things, this is BurnIn, which is apparently the name of Apple's diagnostic firmware. (More info at The iPhone Wiki.)

Upon intitially seeing this it looked like something straight out of Star Trek the Next Generation!

I agree with the other commenters that the design was most likely meant to get the format set before thinking about the "look".

Fucntionality before beauty...

love the design!
looks like something daft punk or kanye west would use

Like where on earth did you get those from?

It's like having a peak inside the designers' head.
Only, ..... It looks like a terribly Big jump from the screenshots above and the current UI. Unless the OP does not have the screenshots for the thousands of prototypes in between.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-iPhone-PROTOTYPE-with-Beta-OS-and-spare-phone_W0QQitemZ170308425742QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCell_Phones?hash=item170308425742&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50 here is the link for the ebay page it is currently at $2000.00

Wow the guy says his reserve price was $300, it is currently $2125 !

He also posted a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRxnZLLuLQs

Wow the guy says his reserve price was $300, it is currently $2125 !

He also posted a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRxnZLLuLQs

Wow the guy says his reserve price was $300, it is currently $2125 !

He also posted a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRxnZLLuLQs

Oops sorry about the triple posting...

Wow item ejected, the seller must be baseball-batting his computer right now...

Looks sorta like the Star Trek TNG UI.

Youtube says the video was removed due to a copyright violation by apple. Seth, it looks like you were right, Apple hates it when others profit off of their leaked products.