Edible Apple

While some companies like to trot out beta hardware/software to give consumers a taste of what’s to come – or in RIM’s case, a final product – Apple likes to keep its plans bottled up until Steve Jobs struts out on stage and introduces the latest and greatest from Cupertino.

Of course, things don’t always go as planned. While complete leaks like the iPhone 4 are the exception to the rule, case molds and design drawings routinely leak out in the weeks, and sometimes months, before a new product is officially announced.

Case in point (and no pun intended) – the iPad 2. Case moldings for the iPad 2 began appearing in late December, a solid few months before Apple officially introduced its next-gen tablet in early March.

Now Digitimes is reporting that Foxconn has arrested three individuals it suspects of leaking out the iPad 2 design to accessory makers, presumably for a handsome reward.

Several online shopping retailers in China were able to sell iPad 2′s protective case products before the iPad 2 was even launched, leading Foxconn to suspect that there might have been some employees leaking the design of iPad 2 which it reported to the local police. The local police on December 26, 2010, arrested three employees that were suspected of leaking the design, and officially charged the three employees for violating the company’s trade secrets on March 23, 2011, the reported added.