14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago it was reported that a prototype iPhone 6 unit had made its way into the hands of a customer by a mistake of Verizon, the American wireless operator and iPhone carrier.
Alex was buying the phone for his mother, but when he turned it on he realized this was no ordinary iPhone.
SwitchBoard
Alex reveals in an interview that instead of booting to iOS 8, the iPhone 6 he’d purchased was displaying something called SwitchBoard.
He soon realized this was a prototype unit running diagnostics software, and he immediately thought of putting it up for sale on eBay. Which he did, for a starting price of $999 (€790).
The bids started coming in
The prototype quickly amassed bids in the thousands of dollars, and before he knew it, the phone was worth $60,000 (€48,000). On the last count, the bids had reached $100,000 (€80,000).
“I am not as excited about these bids as I was earlier,” Alex admitted. “At $4,000 I knew they were real bids; at $10,000 I thought they were real; and at $100,000 I am sure they are bogus. I am hoping for the best but expecting the worst.”
Being an Apple fan, he said he wouldn’t mind even if Apple simply contacted him to remove the auction. Which apparently happened since the time of the interview.
No prototype for you
As soon as news hit the wires that the prototype unit was about to fetch a hundred large ones for someone, the auction was ended abruptly. It’s worth pointing out that the auction still had two more days before closing.
It isn’t clear whether Apple or the seller himself took down the ad. If it was Apple, then the device should be on its way back to Cupertino. If it was Alex who took down the auction, chances are the highest bidder contacted him to pay the cash up front before Apple confiscates the unit.
In any case, the product is now listed as “ended.” eBay adds, “This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available.” Which can mean any of the scenarios above. Our best guess is that Apple indeed wanted the device back and contacted Alex to remove the sale.
Cult of Mac cites an anonymous collector as saying, “Insider connections at Apple say the secretive era at Apple is over and they will not go after prototype auctions any longer. I’ll be curious to see if this one goes the full auction time period.”