iPhone 4 prototype removed from ebay after bids of almost $1m

An ebay listed appeared yesterday for a ‘black prototype iPhone 4' and the bidding was almost at one million dollars before the auction was pulled. Many readers will remember the Gizmodo fiasco, when they paid $5,000 to get access to a prototype version of the iPhone 4.

The auction started slowly, with people bidding two thousand, then four thousand dollars a time, then the bidding went berserk. The device had an invalid serial number and it had a unique tracking code etched into the front. According to the listing, the phone worked, but wouldn't activate.

While initially connections were made with the auction and the ‘missing iphone 4 prototype', the phones were not the same.

Why would anyone pay almost 1 million dollars for a prototype? Well it could be that someone in Apple started bidding incredibly high amounts of money to keep the phone away from a genuine source, while they contacted ebay to get information on the seller, but whatever happened, the auction was pulled from display.

The phone had no volume control buttons and at the rear, all the details and numbers were replaced with ‘x' characters.

“I am a licensed cell phone repairman, this iPhone was bought from a person who really didn't know who he had,” said the eBay seller “jtmaxo.” “He couldn't activate it so just simply wanted to sell it. This iPhone was bought as for parts only. As far as the legality part – phone was bought legally. Good luck.”

Kitguru says: It appears that the phone may already be winging its way back to Apple.

Become a Patron!