Why Apple Didn’t Leak the iPhone

The story of the next-generation iPhone that was found sitting in a bar is so unbelievable that some are now asking whether Apple may have orchestrated the whole thing. The blog Gizmodo, which discovered that iPhone, rebuts the rumors: “The only way the iPhone 4 was a controlled leak is if Apple has completely upended its PR strategy, which is the envy of the entire business world,” Joel Johnson writes. Apple’s extreme secrecy allows it to enjoy leverage over the journalists it provides access to; “leaking” an iPhone like this would destroy that whole system. Johnson also asks why Apple would hang out one of its engineers, Gray Powell, to dry. Johnson calls Gizmodo’s handling of Powell’s identity “incredibly tacky.”