Rare, transparent Apple Newton PDA sells on EBay for $1,350

A rare and transparent Apple Newton listed on Ebay appears to have sold for $1,350.

The item, which was available only under EBay’s “Buy It Now” feature, was one of Apple’s unsuccessful MessagePad personal digital assistant devices from the 1990s.

The listed item was a variant of the MessagePad 110, which came out in 1994. Rather than a dark body, the EBay-listed MessagePad 110 had see-through parts.

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The item’s seller says he or she didn’t know too much about the product on its page description but had received messages from “serious Apple collectors” that said the item was given out to developers by the Cupertino, Calif., company at a conference. The seller said that as few as 150 and as many as 1,200 of the transparent Newtons were handed out.

“Very rarely seen early Newton 110. This is a fully functional unit, and comes complete with original box (box is rather worn), instruction booklets, discs and original matching transparent stylus,” the item’s description reads.

The seller originally believed the item to be a prototype device and had it listed for $1,999.

While the item is rare, it’s important to note that it was commissioned while Steve Jobs was away from Apple. In fact, the Newton is held as one of Apple’s biggest failures.

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