Did Al Gore Give Away an Apple Secret?

Since it’s now been made almost official that the iPhone 5 will be unveiled in early October, talk of Apple’s latest mobile device has dominated tech news sites for the last several days. But several days prior to Apple’s announcement regarding their latest press event, former Vice President and Apple board member, Al Gore, set off an atomic bomb of controversy after allegedly alluding to two different iPhone models being released. If true, it would confirm longstanding rumors that Apple will be marketing a more economic iCloud-focused iPhone in addition to the state-of-the-art iPhone 5.

The controversy hinges on what Al Gore uttered at a Leadership Summit in South Africa last week. The Nobel laureate and climate change advocate stated: “Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month. That was a plug.” He couldn’t have caused more controversy if he had said Apple will be giving out free phones.

It’s the plural nature of the word “iPhone” that has everyone freaking out. Mashable reported on it first, then it rippled through the blogosphere. Everyone has been ecstatic over the possibility that Gore revealed something Apple didn’t want consumers to know until their press conference next week. According to tech bloggers around the web, the only other way what Gore said could make sense is if he was referring to the millions of individual iPhones shipping out to stores, and that’s just too silly of a way to phrase the issue, especially from the mouth of such a successful public speaker.

But that’s actually not the only other way what Al Gore said could make sense, despite what every tech blogger has said on the subject in the last several days. Has anyone stopped to wonder if what he meant was that the iPhone IS coming out next month? Since Al Gore spoke these words, how can we tell if he meant iPhones or iPhone’s?

It all comes down to what he said in the sentence preceding the one that’s caused all the ruckus. If Al Gore had just finished talking about Apple’s latest products, then his statement would allude to more than just one iPhone. But if he had just been talking about Apple activity, then chances are he was just slurring his words.

We won’t know for sure until next week when Apple finally comes clean on the issue.