Engadget “fooled” by iPhone hoax
Engadget posted a story Wednesday morning at
11:49am ET claiming that Apple was about to announce another delay of Leopard,
the next version of Mac OS X, as well as a delay for the iPhone, perhaps the
most hyped gadget of all time.
I put “fooled” in
quotes because there are checks you can run before offering up a statement
guaranteed to affect stock prices. Engadget didn’t have verification
before they published. A few minutes worth of stock market panic cost Apple
investors about $4
billion.
Engadget posted a story Wednesday morning at 11:49am ET claiming that Apple was about to announce another delay of Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, as well as a delay for the iPhone, perhaps the most hyped gadget of all time.
But around 20 minutes after the original post, Engadget started to update its story. First, the site said it had heard back from Apple PR that there was no delay. Then the full story started to emerge.
Apparently an internal memo was sent to several Apple employees–and forwarded to Engadget–saying that Apple issued a press release with the news that the iPhone was now scheduled for October, and Leopard was delayed until January. About an hour and a half after that e-mail went out, a second e-mail was sent–this time officially from Apple–saying the first e-mail was a fake, and that the delivery schedule for the iPhone and Leopard had not changed. Engadget then updated its headline as “False alarm: iPhone delayed until October, Leopard delayed again until January.
Commenters on Engadget and Apple investor boards were not amused. Many of those comments are not printable in this space, but it’s safe to say that there’s some very unhappy Apple shareholders out there today. Apple’s stock recovered as the full story emerged, but was still down slightly in afternoon trading.
Apple says the iPhone is still on schedule for June - something I confirmed with Cingular - and Leopard is still on schedule for October.
But, then, I wouldn’t trust Engadget and their peers [or Internet “advisors” in general] for anything more than a solid technical review of a thumb drive.
Engadget posted a story Wednesday morning at 11:49am ET claiming that Apple was about to announce another delay of Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, as well as a delay for the iPhone, perhaps the most hyped gadget of all time.
But around 20 minutes after the original post, Engadget started to update its story. First, the site said it had heard back from Apple PR that there was no delay. Then the full story started to emerge.
Apparently an internal memo was sent to several Apple employees–and forwarded to Engadget–saying that Apple issued a press release with the news that the iPhone was now scheduled for October, and Leopard was delayed until January. About an hour and a half after that e-mail went out, a second e-mail was sent–this time officially from Apple–saying the first e-mail was a fake, and that the delivery schedule for the iPhone and Leopard had not changed. Engadget then updated its headline as “False alarm: iPhone delayed until October, Leopard delayed again until January.
Commenters on Engadget and Apple investor boards were not amused. Many of those comments are not printable in this space, but it’s safe to say that there’s some very unhappy Apple shareholders out there today. Apple’s stock recovered as the full story emerged, but was still down slightly in afternoon trading.
Apple says the iPhone is still on schedule for June - something I confirmed with Cingular - and Leopard is still on schedule for October.
But, then, I wouldn’t trust Engadget and their peers [or Internet “advisors” in general] for anything more than a solid technical review of a thumb drive.
Posted: Thu - May 17, 2007 at 12:55 PM