False alarm: iPhone NOT delayed until October, Leopard NOT delayed again until January
By Ryan Block 
posted May 16th 2007 11:49AM
posted May 16th 2007 11:49AM
Update:
Here's the story. A trustworthy source supplied us with an actual internal Apple email that went out to thousands of Apple employees earlier today (published after the break). The fact that this was an email sent within Apple's internal email system to its employees is not in question. Let us reiterate: this was an ACTUAL email distributed within Apple's internal email system to Apple employees.
As it turns out, the internal memo Apple employees received was actually retracted by Apple shortly after it was sent out. (Also published after the break.) We received confirmation from Apple PR that this initial email sent out to Apple employees was incorrect, and they let us know that the iPhone and Leopard are both still on track, and should meet their expected launch timeframes.
Presumably Apple is now on the hunt for whomever was able to spoof its internal email system.
Original Apple email
From: Bullet News
Date: May 16, 2007 9:09 AM CDT
To: [redacted]
Subject: Mac OS X Leopard and iPhone Delayed
Mac OS X Leopard Delayed Until January
iPhone Delayed Until October
REGIONS: Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, United States
GROUPS: AppleCare, Retail
Apple issued a press release today announcing that iPhone which was scheduled to ship in June, has been moved to October and the release date for Mac OS X Leopard has been moved to January next year. A beta version of Mac OS X Leopard will be given to developers at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Apple email redaction
From: [redacted]
Date: May 16, 2007 10:47 AM CDT
To: [redacted]
Subject: NEWS: Disregard Bullet*News Sent May 16 at Approximately 9 a.m. Central--AP/CA/EU/JP/LA/US
You may have received what appeared to be a Bullet*News from Apple. This communication is fake and did not come from Apple.
Apple is on track to ship iPhone in late June and Mac OS X Leopard in October.
Ryan, you just made someone a BOATLOAD of money. I hope you sold apple short before you posted this story. Bastard.
Thanks engadget. My stock just dropped.
I hope it isn't pushed back. I couldn't stand another six months of hype and fanboys.
As soon as it comes out, it'll soon be forgotten when reality hits home.
Not cool to post such a story without being 99.9% sure it was true...c'mon guys I expect more from Engadget.
Just to say that Apple is known for blowing false information into insider's ears in order to uncover them. I agree with the previous comment: 50% chance this info is correct, 50% your source is going to be out of a job and bankrupt in no time... ;(
Seriously .... Leopard put off by 7 months? How much more Aqua tweaking does a team of 100 engineers really need?! My God. I don't believe it one bit.
- J
Wow, Ryan. Good deal on the stock. No kidding on the huge hit this shenanigan caused. Expect to hear from Apple Legal. Oh, and Engadget: Maybe you should hire bloggers who, oh I don't know, check their sources before posting inflammatory unsubstantiated information that cause real losses to real people.
And to all of you who bought this (especially the "haters"): think first. Then post.
What a waste of time. Apple said you must be crazy Of course it still out in JUNE....
If it weren't for the fact that your BS comments provided us the oppty to buy more stock I would say you jerks should be sued. Maybe you will be anyway. Which short fed you the "info"? LOL
The iphone is on tract for a LATE JUNE launch I can verify that 100%. However, you probably won't be able to get your hands on one till the middle of July...especially since the Cingular DATA trainers have yet to even touch one yet, and takes about 3 weeks when pushed to get the DATA courses out to folks. We will only be doing online training at this time with the IPHONE, no hands on yet, kinda sucks but that's how it goes.
Wow.
This is a very, very low point for Engadget.
Way to go, Ryan.
You shills should go to jail for this. You should be responsible and check with Apple before you run garbage like this. You are a cheap freaking rag and cost folks billions of dollars with either your criminal behavior or negligence.
What a joke. Engadget posts unsubstantiated rumor, AAPL drops. Engadget later posts correction, stock fails to fully bounce back. Reckless and irresponsible, Engadget. Thanks a lot.
Your "source" doesn't happen to sit in an office in Redmond by any chance?
trying to give me a heart attack? I would have been a bit upset. I'm so looking forward to the iphone.
I know its gonna lack alot from what i am use to but its just the next new thing thats hot and I want it!
What it doesn't bode well for is the integrity of apple hating blogs like engadget and gizmodo and their fanboy sheep in the forums.
Well their stock price took a huge hit at about 12 pm EDT (down 2%) but it's now only down 0.50%...
Regardless of when the iPhone is released, I will not be able to use it to make or receive a call when I'm at work. At lunch today my phone was telling me that I was connected to the network, which itself was a miracle, but it was just a trick - any attempt to actually make a call failed. When I'm in my office it doesn't even show as having a signal, nor within 100 yards or so of our building. Meanwhile my Sprint and Verizon using colleagues are receiving working signals not only in their offices, but all around our "campus" and even in our lab in the basement, filled with computers, power racks, etc. Apple is going to have a lot of really unhappy first time Cingular users on their hands, and Apple's going to be the one getting the angry calls, I suspect. I mean, I'm willing to accept the limitations of Cingular's network, only because I'm using a "pay as you go" phone that provides super inexpensive service, and the phone didn't cost much either. If I'd paid $500+ for a phone and had service this crappy, I'd be pretty damn upset about it.
Ahh Engadget, hallmark of Journalism, Accuracy and Excellent Grammar.
Looks like someone fell for the "honeypot" leak bait. Ouch! That's a career-ender!
i really don't want to be a dick, but can't we at least try and act like journalists?
way to knock $4 off the share price. you guys should go to jail for this bullshit.
on the upside...about 1/2 hour ago it was a good time to buy stock. :S
Looks like someone just exposed a leak at Apple.
Oh the humanity. My nerves are shot.
Amen, Patrick.
It's clear that engadget had the memo, and were hoodwinked just like everyone on the mailing list, and this info didn't get cleared up for about 1 and a half hours.
The venom really flies when it's Apple news.
I guess every Apple stock holder surfs engadget. LOL!
"Should Engadget have tired a bit harder to confirm? Yes, if they consider themselves to be credible journalists."
Fixed it for you.
This is not a simple issue of somebody making an honest mistake and then retracting the erroneous story. Simply saying "sorry" is not going to fix the consequences of publishing a story that is untrue.
To say that the stock will recover to normal levels is not good enough...There are a lot of people/traders with stop loss orders, these will trigger an automatic sell order when the stock comes DOWN to a certain price or a certain percentage. It is the same "fail safe" system that would halt trading if something abnormal were noticed in the market (say God forbit, a terrorist attack). Many stops orders were activated by the dissemination of this article. Traders found their orders executed only to see the stock end just a few centes under for the day.
So yes...the stock will recover and hopefully continue a favorable ride, but any people were thrown off unwillingly from the ride and might not have a chance to get back in.
$4 billion? Jeez that's scary...... I guess its evidence of the power of blogging.....
oh.. and something tells me Steve Jobs may be a bit more dilligent on which websites he sends out to Apple event tickets too now.....
I'm an Apple share holder... I wish to really thank the guy who posted this news.
Next time think twice!!! You are dangerous!
Agreed... as much as it totally sucks that people lost money on this story, one must take into account that gadget sites make mistakes ALL THE TIME. One of the primary reasons it's being taken into account now is because is was negative press for one of the most highly-anticipated gadgets of the year. No one's taking note of how all of the small iPod, iMac and MacBook rumors affect the stock.
Plus, for everyone ripping on Ryan/Engadget and questioning their journalism, consider this: How many times have you questioned their journalistic integrity when they report a POSITIVE/COOL rumor that turned out not to be true? Very few times; possibly never. You all should possibly consider how hypocritical that is.
Maybe I don't know the proper meaning of redact, but why does this story still say that the memo was redacted when the official Apple statement says that the memo was fake?
dude... you guys with your comments, maybe if you were working instead of jerking it to websites and waiting to hop on the negative train we would have world peace or something... cut engadget some slack, at least they updated why they reported it like they did... and they do it in a timely fashion...
and for your info.. iam not at work.. iam OUT of work so i can jerk it all day long as i please...
Fair point patrik... fair point.
buy the rumor, sell the news
How does someone send out a internal email to apple employees.. what kind of internal security do they have? maybe it was the "hello i am a PC" man :)
This little "miscommunication" cost Wall Street billions.
Wow, I Engadget seem to have a lot of power over the stock market this article knocked almost 4 bucks off the stock price of apple.
But seriously all the people saying Engadget is liable and there going to get sued, just shut up there not. They received an internal memo with information, they reported it. They received an internal memo retracting the first they reported it.
Besides the price is back to what it was earlier this morning. and you only lost money if you sold your stock when it went down.
Someone must have divided by zero
engadget screwed up, big.
I'm amazed at the amount of people with stock who read engadget. What do you guys do all day?
What do they do all day? They look at their stocks.
Wow, you guys are dumb. Not Engadget, but the trolls who are grilling Engadget. Ryan stated he had a credible source, but the credible source was wrong/fake, not Ryan specifically. Big deal. And you stock market junkies, YOUR STOCK WILL BOUNCE BACK. It was an honest mistake, so go back to work and stop wasting your time on Engadget if you suddenly hate it so much.
Geez.
I guess if anyone still wonders why companies take 'leaks' and 'rumors' of information seriously (and tries to keep people with no, or perhaps other, vested interests from disclosing info - whether it is accurate or not), it's because people by nature panic and it affects a lot of pocketbooks.
I should clarify. They look at their stocks, caress them, and say "Pretty stock!"
I'm now imagining a blind stockholder holding a dead stock ala "Dumb and Dumber."
Doesn't anyone look at email headers? It would interesting to see if the email originated within Apple's network, or was just sent in from the Internet.
spoof means that you're able to make it appear as though the email came from a particular address.
In this case, that address would be internal.
The only way to figure out where the email came from is to trace IP addy's back to the spoofer.
CLIFF'S NOTES: The email header of a SPOOF email will give a VALID internal email addy.
Someones head should be on the block here, but not Engadgets, probably someone inside Apple.
News like that doesn't come out of nowhere. Someone fed the source misinformation (or perhaps it was the source himself) and were probably very aware that the information would a) leak out to the news blogs b) have a big effect on the stock price.
Someone has probably made a lot of money out of all this.
@phil
Shhh...Maybe Steve did it.
I guess this is one way to see where your internal leaks come from?