Apple on Monday formally requested that Gizmodo hand back over the iPhone 4G it detailed on its website earlier this week
Apple on Monday officially sent Gizmodo a letter, via email, kindly asking them to return the iPhone 4G it so kindly exposed to the world earlier this week.
Gizmodo promptly responded,
Bruce, thanks.Here’s Jason Chen, who has the iPhone. And here’s his address. You two should coordinate a time.
[Blah Blah Blah Address]
Happy to have you pick this thing up. Was burning a hole in our pockets. Just so you know, we didn’t know this was stolen [as they might have claimed. meaning, real and truly from Apple. It was found, and to be of unproven origin] when we bought it. Now that we definitely know it’s not some knockoff, and it really is Apple’s, I’m happy to see it returned to its rightful owner.
P.S. I hope you take it easy on the kid who lost it. I don’t think he loves anything more than Apple.
The exchange reportedly went off without a hitch on Monday evening.
On a related topic, there’s been a lot of talk centering on the legality, or illegality, of Gizmodo paying $5,000 for an iPhone it more than likely knew was stolen, or at the very least, an iPhone they knew belonged to Apple.
Over the past 2 days, Gizmodo has argued that the eventual seller of the iPhone prototype attempted to get the iPhone back to its rightful owner by calling Apple support – which makes you wonder just how hard this person really wanted to return it. After all, why not call the bar where it was originally lost? Some legal experts have suggested that given the importance of the device, Gizmodo should have exerted more of an effort to determine who the phone belonged to before publishing photos and video of the device on their website Monday morning.
Gizmodo also claims that they weren’t aware of who the iPhone belonged to until Monday afternoon, conveniently hours after they had already spilled the beans on the device.
I suppose the legal debate surrounding Gizmodo’s expose can go back and forth for days. But one thing’s for sure – Gizmodo certainly took some of the wind out of Apple’s iPhone sails, and Steve Jobs’ “One more thing” this June just wont feel the same.
