Boy Genius himself and phone leaks

One of the best sources for rumors about upcoming phones is The Boy Genius Report. Boy Genius and his team of bloggers seem to get their hands and cameras on everything mobile first, long before traditional media does. The shroud of secrecy surrounding the person behind the blog was lifted in late April when the blog was sold for millions of dollars. Boy Genius himself is named Jonathan Geller and he’s 23 years old, reported the L.A. Times. Now, who cares, really? Well, the Geller was a pioneer and the BGR model is replicated across the blogosphere.

In my opinion, the most interesting part of the L.A. Times piece is the following:

Geller and his team of three bloggers have been credited with contributing to a major change in how the digital hardware business handles product leaks and marketing. Four years ago, it was an industry of secrecy, with prototypes closely guarded from competitors. Now, Geller estimates that 70% of leaks are planned — because he’s been on the disseminating end of many.

BGR succeeded and sold for millions because it had a unique product to offer. Geller had mysterious access to mobile phone trade secrets in an era when other bloggers and reporters didn’t. Perhaps he sold the blog at the right time because the underground media campaigns with planned leaks made the product he offered more commonplace. Now, we see mobile phone leaks originating on several dozen blogs. BGR, although still a terrific source for this information, isn’t always the first any more.

I’m curious if a bunch of MBAs have decided that the underground campaign produces the largest bang for the buck.  Surely, the campaigns are not very expensive. A blurry photograph goes a long way. Look at all the Motorola leaks over the past couple of weeks… Droid 2, Xtreme, etc.

However, I was wondering why more formal announcements about upcoming products aren’t made more often. How difficult would it be for RIM to issue a press release with screenshots of OS 6.0 instead of pushing a couple shots to BGR? In this regard, Apple seems to stand out from the crowd. Other than a mistake by an employee at a bar, Apple rumors tend to be minor and never appear to be planned leaks. Instead, Apple announces big news at big events. At this point, I’m just thinking and typing out loud but maybe the Apple model is a better model. Information that spreads tends to be official word from the company and it’s reliable.

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