You may have heard via the grapevine that Gizmodo outed the next generation iPhone, the iPhone 4G; however there have been rumours that Apple actually planted the device, a sort of Apple controlled leak as it were. But Gizmodo thinks not and that they have beaten Apple.

Gizmodo says that the only way the iPhone 4G was an Apple controlled leak was if the iPhone maker totally upended their PR strategy and presuming it were true, the only way it could work would be the “destruction of a decade of meticulously laid plans,” and that it would be “cashing in all the market chip for no clear gain.”

Apple is probably the most secretive consumer company on the globe, and the guys say “In an age of blogging vice-presidents and corporate Twitter accounts, Apple communicates with all the garrulousness of a defence contractor.” However once you have the ear of Apple they are great, but make a mistake and you’re done and dusted which is their system.

As for that rumoured iPhone 4G leak, the handset being a plant, well the guys say why would Apple leak the device to a relative niche site such as Gizmodo after all the iPhone is Apple’s baby and knowing any tech site would run with the story.

They also say that if you believe that Gizmodo shouldn’t have run the iPhone 4G story and shown the device before Apple wanted the public to see it then you are accepting that Apple should be the one who controls new on their products. Not an irrational position, but they say you can’t accuse Gizmodo and the tech press of “being shills” for companies and then “pillory us” for breaking the cycle.

Personally I think the guys of Gizmodo were right is outing the next generation iPhone, it’s what tech sites do and we learn much from such sites, and to be honest how many other sites would have simply handed the device back to Apple without posting on it first? And personally I feel Apple shouldn’t sue Gizmodo either because if they do then surely they have to also take the same action against their guy who lost it in the first place and that would mean there are chinks in the Apple armour.