Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Demands Prototype iPhone Back

pcp_ip said:
This is a little too fishy.

March 18th (a Thursday night) the iPhone was found by a guy in the bar. That night, the person that found it viewed Gray Powell's Facebook account on the phone.

He's too drunk/tried/whatever to know it's not a 3GS until the morning, at which time the phone has been remotely wiped. If Apple could remotely wipe it, why didn't they try to locate it first? Maybe they tried. Why not push a message to it with contact info and remotely lock it? Maybe it was safer to render the unit useless.

The finder tries to contact Apple to return the iPhone-- but only calls Apple Customer Service. He didn't recall the name associated with the Facebook account he was browsing?

Two weeks later Gizmodo buys the iPhone. They photograph, disassemble (but not enough to show what CPU it's using, or any real juicy tech info).

Then Gizmodo contacts Gray Powell. How did Gizmodo know it was his? Why didn't the original finder contact Gray Powell? Gray Powell is a mid-level engineer. He's expendable. Everyone know Steve's temper. If he's blown the 10 million units/$100 million launch for the earth shattering iPhone 4G because he's been drinking... why does he still have a job a month after he lost the phone?

Apple sent Cease and Desist letters to the iPad scavenger hunt warning them that any publishing of photos and specs of the unreleased iPad would be considered a violation of their trade secrets. No Cease and Desist this time? The pictures are still up?

While I 100% believe the iPhone is real- there's a lot more to this story that we're missing. The skeptical side of me of me is thinking this is one elaborate viral marketing maneuver. You have to admit the 4G iPhone is at maximum hype level right now. This is the kind of pre-release buzz that companies die for. It's not normal Apple procedure-- but it's tactic in other's PR playbooks.
Click to expand...

As someone who has found iPhones in the past and worked at getting them returned to the owner, the first place I would have looked is not Facebook but his contacts.

I highly doubt the story truly spans a month. The news would not have remained private for that long.

I don't, however, believe it to be viral marketing. That's too low-class for Apple.
 
Carniphage said:
I disagree. This isn't the sort of thing Apple does. Have you never noticed a certain control-freakery in their releases?
Click to expand...

Yeah, what control freaks. How dare they demand their rightful property be returned to them after it was appropriated illegally then sold? Between this and not letting Adobe dictate their OS design, Apple is surely worse than the Nazis.
 
I don't, however, believe it to be viral marketing. That's too low-class for Apple.
__________________
Click to expand...

Ah, i believe nothing is too low class when it comes to marketing. Competition is strong, you know.
 
pooryou said:
Gizmodo comes off as pretty lame in all this.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on this one, how did they manage to come off lame having the biggest leak ever??? by having a douche bag for a head.

Great leak though, I can't argue with that but the way they handle the aftermath and the leak itself makes me feel sorry of how childish they are.
 
There's that nifty feature that Apple offer called Find My iPhone:

find_hero20100329.png


They obviously had the phone registered and location aware as they wiped it the morning after the loss. So the following scenarios are on offer:

* They contacted the person who "found" the iphone and the person wasn't forthcoming with returning it to the owner. They did a remote wipe anyway to protect any secrets: 50%

* They decided to not contact the owner and did a remote wipe and hope it never got into the gadget press. Probability: 10%

* Neither of the above happened. The phone was planted and Apple was trying out a new viral marketing technique. Probability: 99%


:D
 
It doesn´t look like a final product to me. Also, Apple will never ride the exchangeable battery train.
 
Plas00 said:
I agree with you on this one, how did they manage to come off lame having the biggest leak ever??? by having a douche bag for a head.

Great leak though, I can't argue with that but the way they handle the aftermath and the leak itself makes me feel sorry of how childish they are.
Click to expand...
They handled it the same way any other gadget news site would. This was Gizmodo's equivalent of TMZ breaking the story about Michael Jackson's death. Nobody has any clever routines in place for this kind of occurence, they just run with it and improvise.
 
cybermat said:
It would be interesting to see how Steve Jobs will reveal the next generation iPhone in his keynote.
Click to expand...

LOL so true, "Well uhh, today we are revealing our next generation :apple:iPhone, since half of you probably have already seen it, ta da"

Lets just say the keynote will probably be the heartbreak for Jobs . . .
 
Has anyone noticed the Letterhead design?

First thing that struck me about the letter from Apple was that the corporate id was about 5 years out of date. Apple haven't used compressed Garamond on anything for years, let alone that embossed style logo. It's all about the solid apple logo and Myriad now.

Surely a company with Apples' cash can afford to update stationery. Just a thought....
 
rumourboy said:
First thing that struck me about the letter from Apple was that the corporate id was about 5 years out of date. Apple haven't used compressed Garamond on anything for years, let alone that embossed style logo. It's all about the solid apple logo and Myriad now.

Surely a company with Apples' cash can afford to update stationery. Just a thought....
Click to expand...

Good find.
 
its kinda of funny.

this could have been a big accident but many people are thinking it was a deliberate leak. its quite funny.


*I am not convinced either way.

1) an apple employee doesnt just "forget" a prototype iphone
2) the person who found the phone knew to go to gizmodo and get $5000?

interesting.
 
Warbrain said:
There are plenty of things that are low-class in marketing. This is one of them. So is paying someone to tattoo your logo on their forehead.
Click to expand...

Who's done that? I want to see. I saw some Apple logos tattooed on some guys' hands and legs, but a corporate logo on the forehead would beat them all. Especially, if the corporation paid for it. Has such a thing ever happened?
 
kiljoy616 said:
This story gets stranger more and more. If true apple is been very civil about the whole things, strange to see apple just basically asking for it back. No demands or punitive damages, just, "hey can we have it back"
Click to expand...

I see you are not familiar with business communications. Did you expect them to say "OMGZ give TEH PHONES BACK NOWWW!"?

The letter was in fact VERY forceful and demanding when read in a business environment.

tblrsa said:
Good find.
Click to expand...

Not really. Our campus reps business cards still use the embossed Apple logo, and he is a relatively new (less than a year) Apple employee. I wouldn't put much stock into what font they used. Jobs himself doesn't inspect every memo that goes out.
 
hwhalers said:
Yeah, what control freaks. How dare they demand their rightful property be returned to them after it was appropriated illegally then sold?
Click to expand...
That's not even the control freakery he was referring to. Apple's notoriety as control freaks comes from a history of borderline comical secrecy, stories like the one about iPad developers having to sign an agreement that the device must be physically tethered to a desk and that the room must have blackened windows.

The paradox here is that controlled leaks may be this particular control freak's way of seizing control. Apple have been unsuccessful over the last few years in keeping things under wraps, every launch has had its fair share of leaks, and Apple doesn't like to fail at things in public. Since leaks apparently cannot be stopped, the only logical move on Apple's part is to implement a method of pre-emptive strikes against leaks by leaking in ways that make the leakers look lame.

Having said that, I don't believe Apple has started doing this yet, I think they're still stubbornly trying to fight leaks the old school way, but eventually they will try new and innovative ways to deal with these matters.
 
Seeing as how there was considerable time between the article and the receipt of the said device:

what if giz gave George Hotz a crack at her at HQ off the record to insure a nice head start for the community.

Would not surprise me.
 
I think whether Gray Powell still works at Apple in a period of a few weeks or not, will determine in my mind whether this was a controlled leak or not. Apple is a company which clearly prides itself on a high level of secrecy, and in this situation, if this was an unintentional leak, I would assume Apple would need to set a precedent in accountability within the company.
 
Still Unconvinced

...about the final product, that is.

There's an awful lot of speculation going on here over whether this was a controlled leak or a planned "accident" on Apple's part, but I think all of that (while entertaining) completely misses the point. Haven't any of you ever been to an auto show? Does the existence of thousands of exotic concept cars prove that they are -in fact- what the public will find in the showroom months later?? Crikey, if that were the case, 90% of the cars on the road would have gullwing doors by now.

Authentic or not, the existence of a test product in the wild proves nothing about the final form the next iPhone will take. They still have to have purchasing agreements with and reliable order fulfillment from sub-component manufacturers. So far, I haven't seen any of those (often much more reliable) leaks.

I'll believe that chassis is the final product when Uncle Jobs flashes it on stage.

BTW, Sprint have already announced the Google-based EVO from HTC, coming out this summer with 3G & 4G support and a front-facing camera for video chat; and no self-respecting Apple fanboy believes that Jobs would let Google get the drop on the one feature everyone has been waiting for since "Dick Tracy" was in print.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back