Increasing Mass Gadget Heist – Concern or Publicity Stunt?

The year 2012 will be best remembered as the year with best gadget innovations as we’ve witnessed the launch of some amazing gadgets like iPhone 5, iPad Mini, Windows Surface, Google Nexus and many more. Companies like Apple, Samsung, Windows or Google are not backing out in competition and releasing their innovations with up-beat features. On the other side, we seem to remember this year as the year with most Mass Gadget Heists. Till now three major gadget heists have been confirmed by technology biggies like Apple and Samsung.

According to news reports, on a Tuesday in September just before some days of iPhone 5 store launch, a group of thieves stole $100 K worth new iPhone 5s and iPads from a Best Buy store in Murfreesboro. The theft was a financial blow to both the retailers and manufacturer. On the other side; in a report at CNET does reveal that the increasing first weekend sales figures of iPhone 5 are just a thing to boast about, but not to celebrate. Apple iPhone 5 sales are 1 million more than iPhone 4S in 2011. Some tech analysts did expect a 10 million first weekend sales of iPhone 5, which is of-course impossible. We tend to doubt whether this pre-launch theft is actually a theft or a publicity stunt to increase the popularity of the gadget just before it becomes available on stores.

This is not the single incident which makes us think or doubt these thefts, as recently Samsung confirmed theft of 1,400 new Samsung Galaxy Note II from the Malaysian airport. The whole consignment actually worth around $1 million and such huge financial theft is really a concern for copyright infringement accused Samsung. Just around one month after the theft, Samsung Galaxy Note II sales figures were touching 3 million and this figures are achieved 3X faster than the Galaxy Note I. At the same time Apple’s iPhone 5 figures were more than five million and Apple was planning its next device iPad Mini launch. Getting aggravated by varied tablet and smartphone sizes Apple released iPad Mini, which is selling beyond expected figures.

But if you see the last week’s sales report, Apple didn’t release any sales figures for iPad Mini or the new forth generation iPad 4 separately. Giving tough competition to iPad Mini, Google’s recently launched Nexus devices are enjoying good sales figures by approaching 1 million sales per month. And now the theft of 3,600 iPad Minis worth value of $1.5 million from JFK Airport, the same place where more than three decades ago $5 million cash and $900 K jewelry items were stolen. We don’t accuse anyone giving a publicity stunt to boost their sales figures rather we would like to appreciate these incidents. But what we think is that such frequent heists may raise doubt among the people and also among other competitors. Manufacturers or retailers should be more alarmed and stop these heists to avoid big financial blows.

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