[Update] ‘iPhone 5’ Prototype Was Apparently “Lost” Via a Paid Foxconn Worker

According to M.I.C. Gadget, the plethora of ‘iPhone 5’ silicone cases leaked came from a worker that was paid to ‘lose’ the prototype, according to their source (pictured below):

It is said to be a test model with a finalized iPhone 5 chassis featuring the tear-drop design. However, the interesting thing about it is that it apparently houses what we assume to be slightly modified iPhone 4 electronics with components such as the A4 chip and even the same amount of memory.

With its past experience, one might think Apple would have been able to track that prototype down in a heartbeat. However, Apple was outsmarted. The person who had access to the prototype wiped the phone’s software, thus disabling the GPS hardware needed to track it down. It was then allegedly sold to one of the iPhone case manufacturers for RMB ¥20,000 (about $3,100). We were told that Foxconn was aware of the loss and had penalized internal management for the incident. We also heard from another source that the person who “lost” it was paid to do so.

This is really interesting, as the so called tear drop shape of the new design came from this lost prototype. We’ll find out on Tuesday, October 4th at Apple’s ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ media event.