The next-generation Apple iPhone is expected to be unveiled on Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
In past years, Apple has used the conference’s keynote presentation to announce new products, including new versions of the iPhone both in 2008 and 2009.
While the arrival of each new generation of the smart phone has been eagerly awaited, the anticipation was tempered this year after tech website Gizmodo published details about the new phone after paying $5,000 to get its hands on the device. The tech site said it bought it from a person who picked it up at a bar where it had been carelessly left on the floor.
The site returned the phone after Apple sent a letter asking for it. Authorities then raided the home of the editor who published the photos.
In court documents, Apple stated the theft and leak of its new iPhone prototype will have a “huge” negative effect on the company’s earnings.
“By publishing details about the phone and its features … people that would have otherwise purchased a currently existing Apple product would wait for the next item to be released, thereby hurting overall sales and negatively affecting Apple’s earnings,” Apple attorney George Riley told a detective in the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, according to the detective’s affidavit.
