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An iPhone Would Have Cost $3.5 Million Back In 1991

Jillian D'OnfroFeb 8, 2014, 00:27 IST

Flickr/Kristal Kraft

An iPhone would have cost $3.5 million back in 1991, according to back-of-the-envelope-math by TechPolicyDaily.

Here's how the site reached that astronomical sum:

GB flash memory: $45,000 in 1991 vs. $0.55 today
Thus, 32GB flash memory = $1.44 million
Apple's processor, which produces about 20,500 millions of instructions per second: $620,000 in 1991
The cost of mobile communication in 1991: $100 per kilobit per second
The iPhone delivers speeds in the 15Mbps range today. 15,000Kbps (15Mbps) x $100 = $1.5 million

Add those rought numbers ($1.44 million + $620,000 + $1.5 million) and you get $3.56 million. TechPoliceDaily also points out that that sum doesn't even account for the iPhone's camera, operating system, display, apps or motion detectors.

Wow.