Chinese website M.I.C Gadget claims that all the iPhone 5 cases leaked till now are based on an iPhone 5 prototype that went missing from Foxconn factory. Chris Chang posted on M.I.C Gadget:

Ok, here’s what the supplier told us. The missing prototype is said to have been enclosed in a case to disguise it as a current-generation iPhone 4. It is said to be a test model with a finalized iPhone 5 chassis featuring the tear-drop design. However, the interesting thing about it is that it apparently houses what we assume to be slightly modified iPhone 4 electronics with components such as the A4 chip and even the same amount of memory.

With its past experience, one might think Apple would have been able to track that prototype down in a heartbeat. However, Apple was outsmarted. The person who had access to the prototype wiped the phone’s software, thus disabling the GPS hardware needed to track it down. It was then allegedly sold to one of the iPhone case manufacturers for RMB ¥20,000 (about $3,100). We were told that Foxconn was aware of the loss and had penalized internal management for the incident.

What seems to strongly support the claim that an iPhone 5 prototype with the final chassis design has indeed landed into the hands of case manufacturers is that, weeks ahead of the iPhone 5 launch, we are already seeing a plethora of iPhone 5 cases for sale from many case manufacturers. Some even claim to have shipped “thousands” of these cases.

As far as we know, producing a mold for silicone cases costs tens of thousands of RMB and a mold for hard plastic cases costs even more. From the sheer variety of such cases already available for purchase, we are very sure that one or more of these case manufacturers have access to what is believed to be the prototype of the iPhone 5 with the finalized design. It is not simply getting tipped on the dimensions and shapes of the next iPhone to make the molds.

All the cases that M.I.C gadget showed in the pictures as well as in the video below look very genuine. There are only two ways out here – one the case makers are wrong and they will lose lot of money or second they are right and next generation iPhone will have a teardrop design. I am hoping that the second option comes true.