How Much Did Portable Gadgets Cost? From the Walkman to the Apple Watch

Every few years a new device promised to put something useful in your pocket, and each time the question was what it would cost. This guide looks at how much portable gadgets cost at launch, from the Walkman of 1980 to the Apple Watch of 2015.

The original Sony Walkman; portable gadgets cost about $200 when the Walkman reached the United States in 1980. — Photo: Anna Gerdén, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

It covers eleven products, in the order they went on sale, with launch prices and dates from each product’s own page.

1980-84: music and the first mobile phone

The Sony Walkman cost about $200 when it reached the United States in June 1980, where it was first sold under the name “Soundabout”. That is about $814.85 in today’s money. See the Walkman price page.

The Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone cost $3,995 in 1984. At the minimum wage of $3.35 an hour, a worker would have needed more than 1,192 hours, over seven months, to buy one, and the calls cost extra. A full charge took about 10 hours and gave 30 minutes of talk time. Read about the first mobile phone price.

1993-97: handheld organisers

The Apple Newton MessagePad was one of the first personal digital assistants. It went on sale on August 2, 1993 at $699, 14 months after Apple unveiled it, and its handwriting recognition gave mixed results at first. The PalmPilot launched on March 10, 1997. The Personal model with 512KB cost $299 and the Professional with 1MB cost $399. See the Newton and PalmPilot pages.

2001-07: the music and phone boom

The first iPod went on sale on November 10, 2001 at $399, and Microsoft’s Zune followed on November 14, 2006 at $249.99. Microsoft cut the Zune to $199.99 on September 5, 2007. The first iPhone arrived on June 29, 2007 at $499 for the 4GB model with a two-year AT&T contract, and $599 for 8GB. Just over two months later Apple dropped the 8GB model to $399 and stopped selling the 4GB one. Amazon’s first Kindle cost $399 when it launched on November 19, 2007. See the pages for the iPod, Zune, iPhone and Kindle.

2013-15: glasses, phones and watches

The Google Glass Explorer Edition cost $1,500 when the first pairs were delivered on April 16, 2013, and only about 8,000 people picked by Google could collect one at first. The Amazon Fire Phone was $199 for the 32GB model on a two-year AT&T contract on July 25, 2014. Amazon stopped production in August 2015. The Apple Watch went on sale on April 24, 2015. The aluminium Sport started at $349, the stainless steel model at $549, and the 18-carat gold Edition cost $10,000 to $17,000. See the Google Glass, Fire Phone and Apple Watch pages.

Portable gadget prices at a glance

Sony Walkman (June 1980): about $200, about $814.85 today
Motorola DynaTAC (1984): $3,995, about $12,958 today
Apple Newton (August 1993): $699, about $1,627 today
PalmPilot Personal (March 1997): $299, about $629.66 today
iPod (November 2001): $399, about $757.83 today
Zune (November 2006): $249.99, about $418.02 today
iPhone (June 2007): $499, about $806.97 today
Kindle (November 2007): $399, about $639.65 today
Google Glass (April 2013): $1,500, about $2,174 today
Fire Phone (July 2014): $199 on contract, about $281.43 today
Apple Watch Sport (April 2015): $349, about $497.01 today

What the prices tell us

Three patterns stand out. First, the first version of a new category was rarely cheap: a mobile phone at $3,995, a Newton at $699, glasses at $1,500. Second, price cuts could come within weeks. The iPhone fell by $100 in about two months, and the Zune lost $50 within a year. Third, a few devices launched at a deliberate range of prices: the Apple Watch cost from $349 to $17,000 depending on the case.

Play it yourself

Fancy testing your memory of gadget prices? Play the free daily price-guessing game on Price Time Machine and challenge your friends.

Questions about portable gadgets cost

How much did the first mobile phone cost?

The Motorola DynaTAC cost $3,995 when it went on sale in the United States in 1984.

How much did the original Sony Walkman cost?

The Walkman cost about $200 when it went on sale in the United States in June 1980.

How much did the first iPhone cost?

The 4GB iPhone cost $499 and the 8GB model $599, both with a two-year AT&T contract, when they went on sale on June 29, 2007.

How much did the Apple Watch cost at launch?

The Apple Watch Sport started at $349, the stainless steel model at $549, and the Edition at $10,000 to $17,000, when it went on sale on April 24, 2015.