A pre-emptive pre-order page post by
Literally hundreds of blogs and news organizations picked the story up, but a critical stance on the image itself has been missing. Two issues should have been brought up in the coverage of this impatient slip up. First, there is a difference in some of the design details between the CT image and the plethora of leaked parts and "dummies" that have been circulating the Apple blogosphere. I have been critical of what I consider to be an inelegant design solution demonstrated by these "dummy" prototype that, according to my colleague Gordon Kelly, were sent to third-party case and accessory makers by Apple. Some recent 3D renders (including this very elegant one by Mustafa Dağdelen on Behance, with the icon names in Turkish) show how a Jony Ive-quality touch with the finishes could finesse the otherwise clunky "bumpers" and be a plausible Apple-like solution.
Second, China Telecom has been wrong in this regard before. The image on the CT pre-order page (see left side of image below) is somewhat of a compromise between the dummies, leaked parts and the design of the iPhone 5S. But if you look at the images CT used for a pre-order offer on the iPhone 5C last year it is clear that its marketing department is not necessarily getting their imagery direct from Apple! Even after a slew of leaked back plates had circulated showing (it turns out) exactly what the 5S and 5C would look like, China Telecom used images that merged features of the 5S with the colorful idea (but not the actual colors) of the 5C.
iPhone pre-order images from China Telecom in 2013 (right) raise questions about accuracy of its... [+]
So, yes, it appears that China Telecom has tipped something with their gun-jumping gaffe, but the actual design of the iPhone 6 is probably not it.
Also on Forbes:
