This iPhone 2G prototype runs pre-iPhone software, and you can buy it now

Sure, you can jailbreak your iPhone to install all kinds of funky stuff on it, but chances are you've never had an iPhone with a completely different operating system attached to it. Now's your chance to own one, as this pre-iOS (and pre-iPhone OS, for all you sticklers) iPhone 2G prototype is running on Apple's internal testing software called Switchboard.

It's currently up for bidding on eBay, with a price of US$610.00 as of this writing, though the reserve price has not yet been met. The phone is actually pretty beat up, which suggests it may well have been one of Apple's in-the-wild test mules, or perhaps it was just not cared for in the years since its retirement. Either way, it looks like it's going to cost a pretty penny to pick this one up.

[via The Loop]