Nothing is Secret … Even for Apple

4G iPhone, courtesy Gizmodo.com

Whether lost, stolen or leaked, the story of Apple‘s next generation 4G iPhone has become big news in the business, consumer and technology media.

A prototype of the Apple 4G iPhone, which is expected to be available to users this summer, was reportedly found in a Redwood City, California, bar and sold to the tech blog, Gizmodo.com. Gizmodo.com says it’s the real deal.

An Apple software engineer was named by Gizmodo.com as the unfortunate fellow who lost the iPhone.

It is a major gaffe for Apple, a company renown for developing new products in utmost secrecy in order, partly, to orchestrate dramatic roll-out events. Apple wants the iPhone returned and sent Gizmodo.com a letter which the blog promptly posted online (see below).

Until now, Apple’s corporate security has been airtight, second-to-none. At their Cupertino headquarters, any gadget or computer that is worth protecting is behind armored doors, with security locks with codes that change every few minutes. Prototypes are bolted to desks. Teams of developers are separated from others and sworn to secrecy.

Apple's give-us-back-the-4G-iPhone letter to Gizmodo.com

Then, there is the Apple secret police, a team of people with a single mission: To make sure nobody speaks. If there’s a leak, Apple’s security squad hunts down the traitor and escorts them out of the building. There are no second chances for anyone who leaks any information at Apple.

All the security failed March 18 at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German-style beer hall 20 miles from Cupertino, when the Apple software engineer used the top-secret iPhone to post on Facebook while having a beer, laid the device on a bar stool and headed for home.

A patron at the bar who found the 4G iPhone, recognized that the device looked like none other he had seen and apparently tried to contact Apple with no luck.

There’s no word on the hapless software engineer who carelessly left the phone in the bar.

Gizmodo.com said: Apple’s legendary impenetrable security, breached by the power of German beer and one single human error.

One thing is for sure … Apple is not exempt from a reality in today’s world that nothing is secret.

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3. Apple Wins on Campus
4. Secret Apples
5. An Apple Store is Robbed!

Category: Apple, Featured, Reputation management