Streisand Effect: Apple Gets Concept Renderer To Take Down Concept Art For Being ‘Too Realistic’

Let’s dial the clock all the way back to 2007 for just a moment. Beyonce was topping the charts with Irreplacable. Nicholas Cage, the greatest actor of all time, helped make National Treasure: Book of Secrets a hit at the box office. And Apple finally settled a years-long lawsuit against a website called Think Secret, which published rumors it came across about what Apple was going to release next. That settlement included a requirement that Think Secret cease publication, despite it having never leaked anything about Apple directly. Instead, it merely published the leaked information it received. And if that sounds like journalism to you, well, you’re not alone.

But the point is that Apple has a long history of litigious behavior when it comes to leaks and those who report on them. On the flipside, Apple has long had a copacetic view of what are referred to as “concept creators.” These are the folks that, with presumably no insider information or leaks, create mockups of Apple products that don’t exist. Sort of like a near-science fiction wishlist for Apple products, if you will. Or even if you won’t; I don’t care, it’s still what they do.

It appears that those two different types of publication may have inadvertently converged when concept creator Antonio De Rosa produced the following image of what he called the “iPhone Air Flip” phone.

De Rosa created that image as a concept. It’s not a real phone… or is it?

See, Apple’s lawyers contacted him and asked him to alter “some of [his] concepts”, which included that one, based on the reporting I’ve seen. They did so, according to these lawyers, because they were concerned that there would be confusion in the public. Not that they wanted De Rosa to cease creating these sorts of concepts, mind you. They just wanted this one changed.

The official explanation is that because De Rosa’s designs are so widely circulated, they “may actually create consumer confusion”. Apple’s lawyers said that, and also said that they didn’t want De Rosa to stop posting; “we’d rather talk through the nuances of the issue and ideally find a reasonable solution that works for everyone.”

According to De Rosa directly, however, the explanation was a little different.

“Too realistic” is really important here, because it is leading that same public Apple was so afraid of confusing to draw a conclusion that sure seems to make sense to me.

But the conspiracy explanation is that De Rosa’s renders are too good not just because of his obvious talent, but because he’s got too close for comfort with some of his renders. The lawyers don’t appear to have singled out any renders in particular, but if I were a betting woman my money would be on the iPhone Air. 

If that’s indeed the one that’s got Apple worried, that raises another question: why? It’s possible that the concept is incredibly close to what Apple’s making. But it’s also possible – and funnier –that the concept is so pretty that the real folding iPhone won’t be as exciting.

So there are a lot of unknowns here, obviously. Still, for De Rosa to walk away with the idea that any of his images were “too realistic” for Apple’s tastes doesn’t really comport with its claims of customer confusion, except if the image includes something that the real Apple phone doesn’t.

But either way, look! That image in the post? The same one that is being widely circulated across even more publications now, in true Streisand Effect? Seems to be a whole lot more eyes on De Rosa and his renders than there was before Apple got its lawyers involved.