Shajara

So yesterday I was driving from Middlebury, VT (where I go to college) to Syracuse, NY, for my sister’s graduation. I was listening to TWiT’s MacBreak Weekly, hearing them talk about various iPhone leaks, and I wondered: is it all that suprising that the iPhone 4G has been leaked to the extent that it has? Well, first, yes. Of course it is. Apple never loses prototypes, and it is pretty shocking that a leak of this magnitude both occurred and happened to be carried as far as it was. It is unprecedented for this to happen, but, moving beyond that shock, should we, in fact, be so surprised? Let’s look back a little. After the iPhone was announced in January 2007, we began to see iPhones being used in public (even by Jobs himself) some time before it’s official release. We knew about the iPhone, and as exciting as it was to see it in the open, it wasn’t terribly surprising. Apple had to test the thing. Then in 2008, Apple launched the iPhone 3G. We didn’t see much of the phone in the months prior, but there were leaks of body models, case molds, etc (see http://www.touchpodium.com/2008/05/30/iphone-20-rumour-revue/). Apple had a tight lid on the 3G, but there were leaks. Then, 2009 and the 3GS. This is where the real point I’m trying to make comes out. Apple could have lost dozens of iPhone 3GS’s, and most people watching the space would have no idea because the 3G and the 3GS are physically identical (other than glossy writing on the back, something that could have been easily changed for test models). Apple’s testing could have been thorough, extensive, even sloppy, and no one would know. So, now the iPhone 4G comes around (or the iPhone HD, or whatever). It has a completely different design from the 3GS, both inside and out, making a leak like what happened last month not only detectable, but explosive. Their attempts to hide it in a 3GS case make sense, but it was not enough in this case. Once it was out there in the public, my grandmother could have told you that it was something new and different (a product of Apple’s massive and successful advertising effort). Once it slipped out in that bar, it was game over. So, should we be surprised that we know exactly way the fourth generation iPhone looks like? Maybe not. But, should we be surprised that the phone was leaked to the extent that it was, being lost by Apple and sold to a tech blog? We definetly should. And honestly, I’ll miss the surprise of the unknown and unexpected come WWDC ‘10.