"Stolen" I-Phone is Karma.

Posted by Colin Doyle, April 29, 2010

By now, it is common knowledge that Apple had one of its unreleased iPhone HD models picked up at a bar and sold to the website Gizmodo. The fellows at G-Town promptly (and with poor judgement regarding the legal ramifications) broke an exclusive about the new phone.

It's now a week after the story surfaced and we have seen house raids, computer confiscations, and a very angry Apple demand the phone be returned. Apple even released the name of the original iPhone bandit to the media!

What I find ironic is that iPhones are left in bars ALL THE TIME. in fact iPhones get left, lost, and stolen quite a bit. And as anybody who has gone through this ordeal will tell you. Apple is the last place to turn for help. The company apparently sees very little incentive to help customers in this situation recover their phones. Just a few seconds googling the words "lost my iPhone" will yield thousands of results from angry customers regarding apples unwillingness to provide any help or assistance. The phones have serial number identification, GPS, and other individual identification features that If apple so chose to, could use to help locate your missing phone.

When an iPhone is lost, people who recover it can potentially listen to your voice messages, browse your emails, view your web history, and gain access to a multitude of other personal data that most of us would dread a stranger seeing. This results in a feeling of violation not all that dissimilar to what Apple must have felt when they saw images and information about their new iPhones all over the Internet.

In my mind this is a great example of karma. The big guys get a taste of what thousands of brushed off customers have gone through.

CHEERS!