Fake iPhone 5 Photos Fool Tech Media, Call 9to5Mac Parts Into Question
Posted by Michael Nace on Wednesday Jun 13, 2012 Under iPhone 5 Opinion
Corroborative photos out of Asia depicting a fully-assembled iPhone 5 made of the same parts leaked by 9to5Mac were quickly debunked, but not before fooling the likes of Gizmodo, BGR, and others. If those photos could be faked, so too could the 9to5Mac photos.
Just on the heels of the 2012 WWDC keynote address, wherein Apple failed to deliver the iPhone 5 for the second year in a row, excitement over the sixth-generation device was briefly rekindled, with the appearance of photos that depicted the same iPhone 5 parts shows by 9to5Mac in full assembly. According to FoxNews, “Images published on a Chinese tech blog purportedly show “leaked” photos of the unannounced, unreleased, unavailable Apple iPhone 5 — the hotly anticipated next version of the device that rewrote the rules for smartphone makers.”
The photos quickly made their rounds to the usual suspects: Apple Insider, Gizmodo, BGR, etc., all of which bought into the new photos as authentic. The only problem is, they aren’t.
These new photos are little more than renderings, put together by Dutch designer Martin Hajek. Taking the piss out of the Apple intelligensia, he had this to say to FoxNews: “It’s been amazing and a lot of fun to see how many ‘knowledgable’ people fell for them . . . It’s a testimony to how embedded Apple has become in our daily life.” No, Martin — it’s a testimony of how badly the likes of Gizmodo and BGR want to get the big scoop, and buy into the huge payday that the 9to5Mac photos have been to the rumor mill.
The fact is, now that we’ve seen what this Dutch designer did with the original leaked iPhone 5 parts, what we’ve seen thus far seems increasingly like a cynical hoax, designed to do nothing more than excite the Apple base for the purposes of making money on ads.
BGR tried to back pedal on their own coverage with this update: “UPDATE: Italian iPhone blog iPhoneItalia has discovered that while the images may accurately represent the next-generation iPhone if earlier leaks are authentic, these new images are actually 3D renders created and posted by a Flickr user. Hur-dur! Of course they match the 9to5Mac photos — the flying Dutchman admitted to as much! FoxNews reports: “The images are a series of renderings Hajek created and posted to his Flickr site based on leaked images he had seen on various tech websites.”
The question here isn’t if BGR has any credibility left — I think that question was answered last year. The real question: is that back plate we’ve seen of the iPhone 5 really going to be what Apple churns out in the second half of 2012?
I am becoming increasingly skeptical.
Leading up the WWDC, the appearance of those iPhone 5 parts were more compelling, since there was the chance that Apple had managed to pump out tons of iPhone 5 parts ahead of the WWDC, that Chinese supplier managed to get his hands on some of them, and they were going to be ready to roll for a July release. But now that the WWDC keynote has come and gone without the iPhone 5 announcement, the increasingly unlikely it becomes that those parts are real.
The only other time we, the consumers, ever got a sneak peek at a new iPhone was when the iPhone 4 was left in a bar. And even in that case, the form factor of the iPhone 4 was still be hidden — even that late in the product cycle. If the iPhone 5 is still months away, what would the likelihood be that sundry iPhone form factors are floating around Asia?
Not very likely.
So, in a way, this is good news for those who were kind of not liking the look of those iPhone 5 photos from 9to5Mac. The longer it takes to finally get to the iPhone 5 announcement, the less likely we should anticipate that it is going to look like that thing.
By Michael Nace
Michael Nace is the Publisher of the iPhone 5 News Blog and iPhone 6 News Blog. He has published articles about the iPhone since 2010.
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June 13th, 2012 at 8:37 pm
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June 13th, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Seeing more and more info on iOS 6 and people finding all these little updates and big updates and all, I can’t wait for this iPhone to come out. I’m very excited for the fall and we’re only 2 days past WWDC’s opening keynote…this is gonna be a long couple of months!
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June 13th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
@SpasticPat – did u see this one?
http://gizmodo.com/5917762/the-best-ios-6-features-nobody-is-talking-about
I didn’t even know iOS 5 had built in emoji … DOH
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June 14th, 2012 at 12:25 am
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June 14th, 2012 at 2:45 am
If it’s on Cluster-Fox ANYTHING you should immediately know it’s fake and an absolute lie….
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June 14th, 2012 at 5:18 am
Patience is a virtue, haha, I’m sure that most will be overjoyed with whatever re-design Apple dish out to us. I for one would be happy with this rendition, fake or not.
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June 14th, 2012 at 7:35 am
It’s great news… Some other renders of the next iPhone are far more exciting than what that leaked backplate suggested…
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June 14th, 2012 at 11:45 am
Something told me the parts 9 to 5 posted may not ave been the real deal. this may not confirm it but it proves that all of these rumors should be taken with a grain of salt. still though im looking forward to IOS6 and whatever the iphone5 ends up being whether these parts be real or not
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June 14th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
@Michael Decook I did see that, there’s a thread on Macrumors that people are posting screenshots from their dev accounts with any little details/features they find. I like it that when you tilt your phone, the light on the volume knobs in the music player I think it is changes as if it’s a physical knob, also the App Store’s look has been changed and when you buy new apps it doesn’t auto exit from the App Store every time like it always has in the past. Safari doesn’t automatically open the bookmarks menu right away either.
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June 14th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Im due for an upgrade this month but am definitely waiting this out…..I would prefer design wise something more along the lines of that Italian designer’s sleek curvy concept. It was beautiful !!
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June 14th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
What a sick and twisted joke … and I knew those fake, I had a feeling. Like I said before … Apple wouldn’t release a design that looks the same three years in a row, no matter if the phone is stretched to 4 inches and the back plate is now attached to the bezel. I think the design is terrible … there will be a fresh new design (and everyone will be wow’d by it) at the end of September/very beginning of October, you’ll see!
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June 15th, 2012 at 4:16 am
Apple wouldn’t release a phonie that looks the same three years in a row?
IPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS? Minor cosmetic difference between the three, but basically the same form factor.
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June 15th, 2012 at 4:17 am
Apple wouldn’t release a phone that looks the same three years in a row?
IPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS? Minor cosmetic difference between the three, but basically the same form factor.
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June 15th, 2012 at 5:42 am
I’m glad they’re fake, that phone looks crap.
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June 15th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
@DanTheBooker … You have a very valid point, and I suppose Apple can sell it if it is made by Apple, because they can sell anything they put the bare minimum effort … but the competition is coming out with more aggressive style, so I don’t think Apple can get away with another “iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS” … 5/4/3 years ago it worked, but I don’t think that will fly this fall. Just like the software that powers the device, in my opinion anyways, I believe the hardware is becoming more important to people. It’s becoming all about who has the better looking phone. So Dan, could Apple get away with that again, probably, but I just don’t think it would be a good idea, and I personally don’t think Apple would do that. But hey, you may be right too and I could be completely wrong. It’s always fun throwing ideas around on here!
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June 15th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
@Joe, I agree that hardware is more important than it was when they released those three. I don’t think they’ll do it this time. But nobody can really predict apple. I think the form factor will not resemble anything we have seen from Apple. I’m just saying that they have done it before.
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June 16th, 2012 at 1:38 am
@DanTheBook, you’re right, I guess I’ve just been really caught up with all the news they I forgot one of the most obvious things. That was a good point on your part! I hope you’re right about it being something no has ever seen before because I’ll be upgrading to it. We’ll see!
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June 18th, 2012 at 10:11 am
I’m one of the people that fell for the pics. The main reason being that most tech sites posted them. Many of the posts were from rumor sites, but some were from sites that usually do their homework a little more. I don’t mind these renderings at all. They’re different enough from the 4/4S design that they could be close to the final design. Good post Michael! This site is one of the first I saw mentioning they were fake.
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June 18th, 2012 at 8:46 pm
I took’em for real. Why? Because it looked like the natural evolution for the iPhone form factor: not too wide, thinner, bigger screen but still bearing the looks of the phone/smartphone/mini iPad everyone loves to own. And even though the end product may turn up being something entirely different, I would go out and by one of these in the fall. I’m a lot more curious on what processor and memory (iCloud and music streaming will free a lot of space) this time.
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June 19th, 2012 at 6:22 am
Was hoping this would be announced in WWDC 2012. Although, I didn’t really like the back of it for some reason. Still hoping Apple would be announcing a new iPhone some time this year though. Just please don’t call it New iPhone..
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November 11th, 2012 at 7:45 am
You could try get absolutely free iphone 5 from here. You’ve got to reside in the united states in order to apply. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSYXL49glP4
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