Althouse: About that prototype iPhone that was lost in a bar.

April 20, 2010

About that prototype iPhone that was lost in a bar.

Put me in with the people who suspect it was fake-lost to get the publicity it, in fact, got.

25 comments:

Fred4Pres said...: This might make a good issue spotter question.; 4/20/10, 9:32 AM
rhhardin said...: Armstrong and Getty started their program with that suspicion.; 4/20/10, 9:41 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Yeah pretty obvious PR stunt.; 4/20/10, 9:42 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I left tea party fliers at a bar hoping for the same effect.

Its a no brainer.; 4/20/10, 9:45 AM
Opus One Media said...: Lem said...
I left tea party fliers at a bar hoping for the same effect.

Its a no brainer."

that is so true on so many levels.; 4/20/10, 9:51 AM
kjbe said...: Ugly. Squarish corners, uncomfortable to hold... Looks like a decoy to me.; 4/20/10, 9:54 AM
Dave said...: I doubt it. Apple has no trouble getting publicity (see: IPad).; 4/20/10, 9:55 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: that is so true on so many levels.

HDH There are more tea partiers than I phone owners.; 4/20/10, 10:11 AM
Anonymous said...: apple is not starved for free publicity. in fact, they get so much free publicity (more so) just from people speculating about what the new product/software release will entail. apple never pulls stunts like this. everything is coordinated and controlled. besides, this is like finding your xmas present hidden in the closet...in october. now how do we fill the time until dec 25th?; 4/20/10, 10:36 AM
Unknown said...: Apple has always had to out-market Microshaft, which considers itself a marketing, rather than a techie, company and, given Jobs is as good a marketer as he is a techie, put me down for a, "Yeah", on this one.

Hey, how many new wrinkles can you put in a box that size?

WV "deminh" What we tried to do to South Vietnam.; 4/20/10, 11:11 AM
David said...: Fake lost?

Apple goes Balloon Boy.

Does the fact that Jobs made a personal call to Gizmodo make it more likely it's a fake? Or was it a fake call?

I'm completely faked.

An improvement in iPhone would be welcome though. Mine is mediocre.; 4/20/10, 11:15 AM
Doug Smith said...: With $50 billion the bank, Apple doesn't need fake publicity. They own madison Ave.; 4/20/10, 11:55 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: I'm inclined that an insider from Apple got it to Gizmodo, and the whole 'lost in Redwood City' story is made up as a cover.

Whether the insider has management's blessing or not, I've no idea.; 4/20/10, 12:02 PM
halojones-fan said...: Pretty much the first comments at Gizmodo were "fake-lost and you guys bought it".

I like how one of the Gizmodo commenters posted a picture showing that it was a reskinned Garmin Nuvi!; 4/20/10, 12:04 PM
Robert Cook said...: "There are more tea partiers than I phone owners."

Not impossible, but doubtful.

I think the "lost then found" new iPhone is attractive as hell...I will upgrade this summer regardless, and I hope this is it.; 4/20/10, 12:05 PM
Joe said...: Gizmodo paid $5,000, got a good spike in traffic and hopefully sold the phone back to Apple for, say $50,000. Now there's a business.; 4/20/10, 12:05 PM
JackOfClubs said...: I didn't realize there was any controversy about this. Of course it was intentional.; 4/20/10, 12:44 PM
Ironclad said...: I don't think it was a stunt - there is a copy of a letter sent from Bruce Sewell Sr VP & General Counsel of Apple to Gizmodo requesting return of a "device that belongs to Apple".

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/20/apple-demands-prototype-iphone-back/

I think one of Apple's engineers perhaps had a little too much to drink and forgot his phone at the bar - and it got picked up and resold to Gizmodo. Apple even disabled it (remotely) the day after it was reported. I shudder for the engineer at Apple that lost that prototype.

I am sure that they were conducting real world testing with the final prototypes - so maybe even dunking or spilling tests at the bar?; 4/20/10, 12:56 PM
Methadras said...: I saw this yesterday. Learned about it from a friend @ Gizmodo and thought it was an intentional leak, but this isn't Apple's way of doing business. They are notoriously secretive, to the point of near fascism. They have so many layers of checks, that I'm stunned that they even let this kid take one and do a field test. He'll either be a hero or get completely black-balled.; 4/20/10, 2:11 PM
George said...: Oh please, there is no way this iPhone prototype was "lost." Speaking from first-hand experience, I'd lose my wallet before I lost my iPhone. In fact, I keep it handcuffed to my hand at all times. I eat with it, sleep with it, shower with it, make love with it (there's an app for that). If I fell into a river with it, I might drown, but they would find my body with my arm holding the iPhone out of the water without a single drop on it.

LOSE it? Hahahahaha...; 4/20/10, 2:39 PM
Anonymous said...: also, this just in...

"Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones in the last three months. That's over double what they did a year ago—the most quarterly ever—and how Apple nearly doubled profits: Up 90 percent for their best ever non-Christmas quarter. Updated live."

what is the business rational behind leaking a product months before its release, therefore cannibalizing sales of an existing product, which from their just released quarterly report, is still selling at a torrid pace? It can not be for 'free' publicity to which they have no shortage of.; 4/20/10, 4:17 PM
Penny said...: Fake ploy is an oxymoron.; 4/20/10, 4:25 PM
mariner said...: dp:

The new product won't be out for another six months, and people are too impatient to wait that long.

I don't see this cannibalizing sales of current iPhones.

wv: matin -- mais non, c'est apres-midi.; 4/20/10, 4:34 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/21/10, 8:07 AM
Shawn Levasseur said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/21/10, 8:09 AM