Your $1,000 Phone Is Really a Bargain

The lines outside Apple stores are proof: People will pay up for the gadget of the moment. But will the next iPhones -- or whatever -- really be worth the price? 

Fact is, a lot of the technologies stuffed in your mobile phone were once the hot gadgets of the day -- and today's models look like raging bargains next to their dusty old cousins. For instance, adjusting for inflation, a circa 1984 mobile phone would have set you back almost $10,000 at the time. And if you'd been around to buy all the early gizmos shown here, you'd have forked over the equivalent of more than $25,000.

All inflation adjustments were done with the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculator except for the 1888 Kodak camera: www.officialdata.org.