The significance of Apple’s iPhone as the world’s first smartphone is growing day by day. Now, this meaning is beginning to be reflected on the auction floor. Auction prices for original Apple iPhones have been soaring since 2022, and the next major auction will be held on March 20, 2025, when we expect the iPhone auction price record of $190,000 to be challenged again.
The original 2007 Apple iPhone launched the smartphone market and spawned the fastest product penetration in history.
In 2024, smartphone shipments will reach 1.24 billion units, and global users have just exceeded 5 billion, which means that two out of every three people own a smartphone.
Since the advent of the iPhone, the world has been in the throes of an information revolution, and smartphones seem to have become the personal computing platform of choice for the foreseeable future. This makes the first phone even more valuable.
The "Information Age" has gone through decades, but the new era of mankind began on January 9, 2007, when Steve Jobs launched the first iPhone at the MacWorld conference in San Francisco;
This isn't the first photo of Steve Jobs showing off an iPhone, but it's a photo from early in Jobs' career, when he was struggling for his commercial survival as CEO of NeXt. The photo - sold at the auction as part of the Clement Mok Collection - brilliantly captures Jobs' powerful showmanship.
The iPhone was launched on June 29, 2007, with a retail price of $499 for the 4GB version and $599 for the 8GB version. Now, the 4GB version is the more valuable of the two because it's rarer -- it was discontinued after just a few months due to poor sales, mostly because everyone wanted the 8GB version.
In the 17 years since the launch of the 4GB and 8GB iPhones, smartphones have gradually been given such an important role in the history of human civilization. At a certain moment, yesterday's second-hand goods (maybe even scraps) became important historical firsts... With the popularity of smartphones, the historical importance increases year by year, and people will realize this sooner or later.
In August 2022, an original iPhone set a world record price of $35,414, which seemed to dazzle collectors around the world. This became world news.
In October 2022, the record jumped to $39,339 and reached $63,356 in February 2023, while the current base price is $190,373, set on July 16, 2023.
The $190,000 price is no longer an outlier, as 4GB iPhones have sold for $130,027, $133,435, and $147,286 respectively.
Perhaps more importantly, there are two 8GB models at the same auction still sealed in Apple's original film, and the value of the 8GB models is now soaring.
Since the 2007 4GB iPhone shocked the world with a price of $35,414 in August 2022, the prices of 8GB models have reached $63,356, $55,999, $54,904, $55,999, $54,904, $53,725, $39,339, $37,663, and $35,414 respectively.
RRAuction is becoming the dominant player in digital memorabilia, gaming and computer history auctions in the global market, with the company's Steve Jobs and Apple Revolution auction held every March having set auction records for a decade.
This year's auction is particularly special because there will be an important collection of rare prototype computers to be auctioned, which will bring heavyweights and therefore more people to the auction... The number of technological firsts is almost dizzying... These memorabilia will one day become priceless heirlooms or museum foundations. They should appreciate significantly in the foreseeable future.
The auction has become an important destination for history collectors as it attracts more computer history memorabilia every year, and this year's lots include numerous Apple computer prototypes, an original Apple-I computer (valued at more than $300,000), an original Apple-I user manual (valued at more than $10,000) and a signed Steve Jobs business card.