Did T-Mobile Germany really leak the 3G, 16GB iPhone? Doubtful.

So you may or may not have seen the above supposedly leaked German T-Mobile ad floating around the internets today, which outlines a new iPhone featuring not only HSDPA, but double the current device's capacity (16GB), all for a paltry €499 (about $700 US) when released on November 12th. Is it possible? Sure, anything's possible, and these guys even show off an iPhone with German-translated icons. Still, we're not convinced. What's more likely, that Apple, which managed to keep AT&T almost totally in the dark right up until launch day, really sealed the deal with T-Mobile on a new iPhone that just happened to get leaked more than a month in advance? Or that this image -- a ridiculously easy photoshop job -- is every bit as fake as the Ich Lüge bullets from Heathers?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, via TUAW]

[Resopalrabotnick @ Sep 9th 2007 9:45PM]

especially since the text talks about the Apple iPod and not the iPhone... durr...

[Beefthing @ Sep 9th 2007 10:01PM]

That's exactly what I was going to say. How can some ad advertising for "Apple iPod 16Gb" with a picture of an iPhone be trusted? Is it an advertisement for the iPod or the iPhone? Or perhaps it's just some sort of joke made by an Apple fan or hater?

[Sam Culley @ Sep 10th 2007 2:07AM]

It actually says intergrated ipod and video, durr!!!

[Steve Paine @ Sep 10th 2007 10:43AM]

Yup. According to my neighbor who works at T-Mobile Germany head office as a legal bod, its not true.

S.

[Andre @ Sep 9th 2007 9:45PM]

So what does that mean to Americans who want the iphone, but don't want to cancel their contracts with T-mobile? Any chance we can see the iphone on t-mobile in America in the near future?

[derX @ Sep 9th 2007 10:01PM]

If you consider five years to be the near future, yes.

But, then again, you can always go on eBay and buy one of those purportedly unlocked iPhones for 1000+....or is it the spleen of you and your first born, I forget the price.

[OS11 @ Sep 10th 2007 10:07AM]

the contract with ATT is 2 years, not 5.

[Yvo @ Sep 10th 2007 1:44PM]

OS11 - *Your* contract may be two years but the agreement between Apple and AT&T is for 5 years. Apple can only release phones on the AT&T network in the states for 5 years.

[Dan @ Sep 9th 2007 9:47PM]

why is every part of this flyer so compressed, whereas the text announcing a new product is perfect? because photoshop works wonders.

[DickHardknocks @ Sep 9th 2007 9:49PM]

seems to me everyone who bought Iphones early got screwed.

[Nomi @ Sep 9th 2007 10:03PM]

ok I don't know why people say that. The iphone business plan is not going to be like the ipods, where products are cycled once a year. Cellphones get old really quickly so you will see a 6 month or less product cycle for the iphone. And November puts it around 4.5 months.

[Motorola 3G Victim @ Sep 10th 2007 12:39AM]

Seems to me anyone whom didn't buy an iPhone is still getting screwed by their existing cellphone.

The ad is obviously a fake: no Wifi iTMS icon.

[humpty @ Sep 9th 2007 9:51PM]

Looks like some noob got their hands on photoshop.

[derX @ Sep 9th 2007 10:03PM]

Hey, I am not saying that is is legit, but this wouldn't be the first time everyone on Engadget thought a leaked Apple product was a photoshop job. How we forget the iPod Nano so quickly.

[dagamer34 @ Sep 9th 2007 10:51PM]

Or the new iMac keyboards. People were nitpicking about the lack of an Apple logo on those things. And what do you know, the official keyboard doesn't have them!

Don't be so quick to scream PHOTOSHOP.

[Fruition @ Sep 9th 2007 9:56PM]

It is a shoop, I can tell from the pixels and from having seen a lot of shoops in my time.

[coffeepot64 @ Sep 10th 2007 8:17AM]

Whats a "shoop"

[Arjy @ Sep 9th 2007 9:59PM]

I dunno, it seems that it caters to the rumors too much. A too good to be true moment right here.

[adam @ Sep 9th 2007 10:00PM]

FAKE... wheres the wireless itunes music store, eh?

[jay-t @ Sep 10th 2007 8:20AM]

I don´t see it here either: www.apple.com

Obviously a fake too, hmm ;-)

[derX @ Sep 9th 2007 10:11PM]

I understand this is barely related, but people on T-Mobile USA must really feel neglected. I mean, in Europe, T-Mobile is up there is technology, or so it appears. In America, their phone lineup is 2005, at best, save a couple (mind you, "at best" is just a qualifier so I don't get blasted by an overly passionate T-Mobile sales person, though those are, fortunately, not too easy to come by).

---------

Yo, T-Mobile USA, show your customers some lovin'. The only thing you guys going for y'all are those SideKicks, which cell phone heads, such as myself, still have yet to oogle over.

...but then again, I'm down with the death star, so I'm not really affected either way.

[Chir @ Sep 10th 2007 2:54AM]

I hardly think it matters what cellphones T-Mobile USA offers, because T-Mobile is GSM, so you have the entire universe of unlocked GSM devices open to you. Phone lineup only matter for those pesky CDMA carriers (who shall remain nameless) who lockdown their entire service from ringtones to handsets to squeeze the last penny out of every subscriber.

[derX @ Sep 10th 2007 4:36PM]

I know it's GSM and you can use a gamut of unlocked cell phones on their network, but the name of the game is subsidies. I'm a loyal cell phone user and would not transfer carriers even if I had the chance to, so I don't mind the two-year agreement if you'll give me a cell phone hella cheap.

But, overall, I agree with you, that their crappy--well, lacking essential bells and whistles--network is the biggest issue. Also, is it only me who thinks they should package more phones with WiFi ESPECIALLY since they've launched their Tmobile HotSpot @Home service and ALLOW THEM TO USE WiFi for data. I mean, that makes no damn sense to me. But, like I said before, I'm down with the deathstar and am in a major US city, so I have 3G, but, yeah, TMobile is really treating its US customers poorly--by putting them in the back seat.

[Darnell @ Sep 9th 2007 10:19PM]

Maybe this is a fake but no where near out of the realm of possibility. Obviously the iPhone is hot stuff here but some of it's features are underwhelming when compared to the Euro market who gets way more goodies bundled with each phone. 3G makes sense because they have better support there and 16gb is a natural progression (I'm sure we'll see a US version early next year) given the announced Touch. Oh and the price isn't that bad either.

[Grant @ Sep 9th 2007 10:31PM]

i agree,
with the announcement of the ipod touch and the discontinuing of the 4gb iphone, this is really an obvious natural progression.

While i doubt this is happening by november, i would bet it's gonna happen in the 1st quarter of next year. Afterall, apple did go with a GSM radio to be available for use in all 22 countries they support, but i doubt they would go and launch the 16gb iphone overseas first, or someone actually have intel on apple this far in advance.

[Colin B @ Sep 9th 2007 10:28PM]

Is it just me or do Europeans really get shafted on their plans? 50 Euro/month for 200 mins and 100 texts? Ouch.

[Twitchy @ Sep 9th 2007 10:50PM]

"Is it just me or do Europeans really get shafted on their plans? 50 Euro/month for 200 mins and 100 texts? Ouch."

You forgot that this 'plan' includes flat-rate data. Of course it is propably a fake - O2 (another German cell-phone network provider) has data plan additions for example 5GB at €25 p/m, or €0.09 per minute if you surf casually. Not too bad when you consider that you'd almost always be within 3G coverage wherever you go in Germany.

[Chris @ Sep 10th 2007 12:34AM]

there's also the fact that in most european countries incoming calls and texts cost nothing.

[Andrew @ Sep 10th 2007 9:13PM]

Wait, in the US you actually have to pay for incoming calls and texts? And don't forget that if this wasn't fake (which it is) then the phone would be subsidized as well.

[nastynards @ Sep 9th 2007 10:43PM]

if u look at the bottom 4 icons its in english still
PHONE MAIL SAFARI iPOD

[John @ Sep 9th 2007 10:49PM]

"mail", at least in the context of voicemail and email is the same in german and english. The german word for 'phone' is telefon, but I would not be surprised if 'phone' had been adopted as a german word as well. Safari is a product name unrelated to the product itself, so there's no reason to translate it (and it could be the same in both english and german... I have never had reason to talk about safaris in german). iPod is not a word.

[nastynards @ Sep 9th 2007 10:51PM]

my bad

[I.E @ Sep 9th 2007 11:05PM]

Even at $700 with added capacity the damn thing is still overpriced.

[Mac Dub @ Sep 10th 2007 4:46AM]

I'd take that $700 price with a grain of salt. We're always getting shafted on the echange rate over here. The PS3 also sells for 499 € which is 700 bones. It just makes my trips to Usa that much more interesting when I can spend half as much cash for the same gear.

I almost sprang for that $299 4GB iPhone which would've been around 220 €. I'm a patient boy though

[Russian Monkey @ Sep 9th 2007 11:22PM]

I think it's a fake too, but if it isn't, then someones gonna be annoyed...

[Sebastien Page @ Sep 9th 2007 11:34PM]

It is a TOTAL FAKE. Anyone who speaks a little German can see it's a bad translation. Plus there is some grammatical mistakes and they even say "iPod 16 GB" somewhere on the ad. I really doubt T-Mobile who have such a terrible ad agency...

[Icheb @ Sep 10th 2007 6:10AM]

Where exactly are those "grammatical mistakes"? Even hyphens are either used flawlessly ("2,0-Megapixel-Kamera") or with regards to style ("iTunes Store Gutschein" inside the price bubble).

[malaeum @ Sep 9th 2007 11:45PM]

Am I the only one who has caught the "mit HSDPA" part? (with HSDPA for the non-german speakers)

As far as I know the iPhone definitely does not have HSDPA capabilities, at least not in its current known form.

I can clearly see the commenting on the Apple iPod 16GB text line appearing to have been 'shopped. I agree that clearly points to a fake. Also iPod? no this is iPhone, if there is one thing that Apple can do it is market and putting out advertisements with the incorrect product names is not something they would do. Now the parts mentioning HSDPA do not appear to be photoshopped at least not with the same lack of regard for the compression artifacts in the rest of the image.

I'm not buying this as real at all, but the HSDPA part is quite interesting, at least to me. Eurupe could be where it launches the 3G iPhone afterall. Then again there is too much news about European carriers "upgrading" to EDGE just to support this piece of fruit.

[Bryan Siders @ Sep 9th 2007 11:45PM]

What's that MacBrownie or whatever it says in the pink at the bottom of the ad?

[Bryan Siders @ Sep 9th 2007 11:47PM]

Nevermind. It's the MacBidouille site it came from. :)

[Travis May @ Sep 9th 2007 11:48PM]

Yeah...I don't know German but it seem awfully funny how relatively easy it is to read the ad. I mean "Mobil Surfen und mailen", come on. Also, the map icon would probably not have a U.S. interstate sign and instead have a German or European one.

[Twitchy @ Sep 10th 2007 12:12AM]

Umm, there is actually very little German now used in the technology field in Germany. For example, although we have the German term 'herunterladen', almost always will the English word 'download' be Germanised into 'downloaden'. The phrase 'surfen und mailen' is a fair representation - and once iChat comes along it will be expanded to include the word 'chatten'
Yeah, we Germans may be good at engineering and organising, but we couldn't imagine our way out of a paper bag.

[Torsten @ Sep 10th 2007 12:04AM]

I am an german costomer of t-mobile. The add sounds to be too good to be true, but this would be the iphone i would buy.
The add looks like the actual t-mobile adds.
The german is not a bad translation
the mobiles in germany get normaly subsidies by 150 €
And t.mobile has such a bad ad agency

[Constable Odo @ Sep 10th 2007 1:18AM]

EinSuckers. This fake ad should make Apple stock move. . . . Down. Sig iPhone.

[Eduardo @ Sep 10th 2007 3:03AM]

Teniendo en cuenta el precio del Nokia n95, creo que está bien de precio. Espero que cuando realmente llegue aquí tengan el sistema de activación mejorado. Por lo que leí, en EUA fue un desastre.

[Travis May @ Sep 10th 2007 6:43PM]

Hey Eduardo, if you're going to comment please do so in English. Nothing against Spanish, but seeing as this is a English blog just about everyone that reads this reads primarily English. I do not know if there is a Spanish equivalent of Engadget but check to see if there is.

[Liski @ Sep 10th 2007 3:36AM]

If it was 3G where is the front cam for video talk?

[hiroo @ Sep 10th 2007 3:40AM]

> Ich Lüge bullets from Heathers

As always, your taste is impeccable. I just had to say that. Great movie that was, too bad the director (and Wynona Rider and everyone eles) never managed to top that.

[Phil B @ Sep 10th 2007 5:37AM]

> Ich Lüge bullets from Heathers

But in Heathers they were real bullets!!

[mike @ Sep 10th 2007 11:21AM]

CornNuts!!!... (falls into table)