Lost iPhone 4G return taken as a Hoax by Apple?
Its easy to lay blame after the fact when something as important as the next generation iPhone gets leaked across the entire internet, but when it boils down to the bottom line who is really to blame? The guy who originally lost it, Gizmodo for paying $5000 for it and them reveals their findings to the masses, or Apple for thinking that someone wanting to return the iPhone was just a hoax?
By now you all probably know how everything played out once Gizmodo went public with the iPhone 4G, the net has been alive with the subject for the last few days.
However when it comes to apportioning blame for the security slip up with the iPhone 4G, Apple must take their fair share. Yes the guy who lost it shouldn’t have, but then Apple must have allowed him to have use of the device outside the Apple camp.
Gizmodo has to should a portion of the blame as they did go public with their knowledge, but then as I have previously said any good tech site in that position would have probably done the same.
But the guys over at Gizmodo have posted an article which explains what happened when a source tried to hand the missing iPhone over to Apple. And what follows is how it went down from the Apple reps perspective that got the call…
“I work for AppleCare as a tier 2 agent and before the whole thing about a leak hit the Internet the guy working next to me got the call from the guy looking to return the phone. From our point of view it seemed as a hoax or that the guy had a knockoff, internally apple doesn’t tell us anything and we haven’t gotten any notices or anything about a lost phone, much less anything stating we are making a new one. When the guy called us he gave us a vague description and couldn’t provide pics, so like I mentioned previously, we thought it was a china knockoff the guy found. We wouldn’t have any idea what to do with it and that’s what sucks about working for apple, we’re given just enough info to try and help people but not enough info to do anything if someone calls like this.”
So bottom line, you tell me who is to ultimately be considered as blameful in this fiasco, my view is that it is ultimately down to Apple, what do you think?
Comments
5 thoughts on “Lost iPhone 4G return taken as a Hoax by Apple?”
I think the whole thing was contrived by Apple. "Lose" the phone, get it in the hands of a tech review site, let them post photos and information, get free feedback from tech-geeks. Then, if there is negative feedback, Apple can call the phone a prototype, pull it back and address feedback before actually releasing it to market. In the meantime, Apple gets some free buzz about its phone.
I tend to agree with Stony. Of course you know that the phone would already have the ability to locate and totally erase everything on it by remote, since you can do that already. So why wouldn't the tech who lost it just immediately clear everything off? Sometning is not right here.
While I do believe this is some stunt pulled by the boys at Apple (Surely they wouldn't let a random employee go home with the prototype? Especially not when the company is as tight on security as Apple…), the way it was executed was very different from their usual method of buzz marketing. First of all, it's attracted very little attention outside of the tech-circle, and with the total redesign, a back camera and flash, you'd expect a bigger show from them. Second, why block the phone almost right away? Gizmodo only got a day or so's worth in playtime with the thing, so if the product's that good, why only give such a small glimpse of it?
If it was indeed intentionally "lost" by Apple, they would have played it to the fullest to cover their own asses by taking such extreme measures to make it appear to be truly "lost" and maybe this is why Gizmodo was not given a lengthy amount of time with it.
I was told by a friend when discussing this that another employee was given an iPad hours before the release that they were allowed to take out of the "safe zone" but they could not talk about it or show it to anyone. Apparently at midnight after the restriction was lifted on talking about the iPad, the employee showed it to a friend for two minutes and was terminated for that. I have a few Apple products, but their uptight attitude and secrecy makes me despise them. Their flippant responses to their own ignorant leaks of their devices pisses me off as well. Raiding a guys house and taking thousands of dollars in computers and accessories? Come on… The last time I lost something, the cops didn't raid anyone's home… This just makes me wonder how much power massive companies like Apple have over average people. What makes them so important that they had a full raid on this guys house, we're not talking about the cure for cancer being leaked and compromised…