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I am still blown away by these images.  These purported prototypes are currently for sale on eBay, currently at $940.  They are said to be models produced 6 months before the release of the phone and while the hardware looks pretty similar to the release version, the software is no where near ready for prime time.  And that is the best part.

While not everyone loves the iPhone, I believe we can all look at this image and see why the iPhone has been so hard to catch.  Just like so many LG, Samsung, or Nokia phones, the hardware looks great, but the software is clearly responsible for the differentiation.  It is a cheap shot at Moto for blaming them for this uber-ugly UI.

I am probably being too hard on Motorola, but the point is mobile phone operating systems hinge on usability and an attractive GUI.  Had the iPhone been released with something that looks like this, well, Apple would have dropped it like a Newton.  Without the iPhone, we’d all be drooling over the Palm Treo Pro right about now, right?

On eBay, one of these phones works and one doesn’t according to the description:

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.

On second thought, these could just be actual production releases of the iPhones as many exhibit these same issues.  It appears that copy+paste is broken on these models as well.

Happy bidding! [eBay]