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The World's First USB-C iPhone Auctioned and Sold for $86,001 on eBay
A modified iPhone X sporting a USB-C port has been auctioned and sold, which brings to mind the question of whether Apple will take a hint or not.
Curious
A modified iPhone X sporting a USB-C port has officially been sold on eBay for a whopping $86,000. That's way over the price of even the latest iPhone and clearly, a signal that even in the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a product of engineering is valued.
The custom-built and one-of-a-kind phone was the result of master's student Ken Pillonel's many months of efforts. Earlier this month, Pillonel also released the making of the phone on his YouTube channel, with the details on GitHub.
While the efforts were rewarded by the media coverage the project got and the number of subscribers that Pillonel earned on YouTube, the monetary worth of the unique piece was realized only after it was put up for auction on eBay.
As Gizmodo reports, there was even a bid of $100,000 that was later retracted. When the auction closed, the highest bid stood at $86,001. Given that Pillonel had set some stringent conditions for the sale that included not using it for regular purposes or giving any guarantees of the phone working if the user decides to update it to a more recent version, its utility is only as a collector's piece.
The bid price might seem high for the lay audience but the money is unlikely to change the minds of the top brass at a company valued at over $2 trillion. However, it might just be enough to show that its customers are interested in a USB-C version of its popular phone. Apple has moved a lot of products away from the Lightning port onto USB-C but insists on retaining it on the iPhone.
Definitely, it isn't the case that the team at Apple does not know how to fit in a USB-C port on the iPhone. It is just that for some reason there is opposition to this idea. Either out of concern for the environment or its customers who use other devices too, Apple must move to a commonly used port.
Or maybe ditch it altogether and go wireless?