“While on a trip to Shenzhen last weekend, our crew received a tip from an iPhone accessories supplier that an iPhone 5 prototype had gone missing from the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen Futian district,” Chris Chang reports for M.I.C. Gadget.
“Ok, here’s what the supplier told us. The missing prototype is said to have been enclosed in a case to disguise it as a current-generation iPhone 4,” Chang reports. “How Apple achieved that with the iPhone 5 supposedly wider and longer than the current iPhone 4 is a point to ponder. It is said to be a test model with a finalized iPhone 5 chassis featuring the tear-drop design.”
Chang reports, “With its past experience, one might think Apple would have been able to track that prototype down in a heartbeat. However, Apple was outsmarted. The person who had access to the prototype wiped the phone’s software, thus disabling the GPS hardware needed to track it down. It was then allegedly sold to one of the iPhone case manufacturers for RMB ¥20,000 (about $3,100). We were told that Foxconn was aware of the loss and had penalized internal management for the incident.”
Much more in the full article, including more photos and videos, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]