Apple Suffered Huge Loss From iPhone 4G Leaks?

The Apple  – Gizmodo debacle has gotten a significant amount of coverage in the news lately. The story has refused to die down with more details coming into light. Gizmodo has already had to deal with the cops. Many blogs condemned the treatment that Gizmodo blogger received while condemning Apple for losing the prototype and blaming it on Gizmodo. But that is not the whole story. Apparently, Apple has claimed to have suffered a “huge” loss after details about its new phone were leaked to the media.

By publishing details about the phone and its features, sales of current Apple products are hurt wherein people that [sic] would have otherwise purchased a currently existing Apple product would wait for the next item to be released, thereby hurting overall sales and negatively effecting Apple’s earnings

said George Riley, a lawyer representing Apple. Detective Matthew Brand’s affidavit sheds even more light on this whole story.

Did Apple suffer a huge loss as a result of this leak? It’s tough to say. Will there be people who will not buy iPhone 3G and wait for the next generation iPhone to come out? Absolutely. Apple is a business, and its goal is to make more profit. Of course, those of us who have followed Apple for years knew all along that the new iPhones always surface somewhere around June/July. Apple probably made a bigger story out of it by how it handled the leak.

Make no mistake about it. Anyone who steals a prototype and tries to sell it needs to be punished. It’s also utterly stupid to assume that Apple would not have a tracking mechanism for its test units. As far as Apple’s losses are concerned, I am sure Steve and Co. will be laughing to the bank when iPhone 4G is released. The company is better off spending its time addressing the leak issue internally instead of fighting journalists and the media.