TORONTO – On the surface, Sonny Dickson is your average teenager.
He enjoys tech gadgets and Louis Vuitton accessories – as demonstrated on his Instagram account. But, in stark contrast to others his age, Dickson is the brain behind a surprisingly credible Apple rumour website that helps finance his lavish purchases.
The Australian teen began making headlines this week after posting high-quality images of the rumoured iPhone 5S and 5C parts to his website – including some of the “best pictures yet” of the much-rumoured gold iPhone.
This summer has been filled with talk of Apple’s anticipated iPhone refresh.
The majority of the speculation revolves around the next generation of the iPhone 5 – regularly referred to as the iPhone 5S in following tradition with the iPhone 4S refresh – which is said to include a fingerprint sensor, a faster processor and come in a new “champagne gold” colour.
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Through these most recent iPhone generations, Dickson’s blog has been one of the most-watched for Apple news.
But the Melbourne-area-based blogger remains tight-lipped about his business – keeping mum on details including his exact age.
According to a Fortune article in which Dickson was interviewed, he is “old enough to drink” – which means he is 18 or older (18 is the drinking age in Melbourne).
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In another interview with Reuters he said he has “five to ten” sources in China who buy Apple prototype parts from Apple factory workers and send him photos and videos to post on his website. The Reuters report noted that Dickson initially communicated with sources via Weibo, a Chinese microblogging service, but then switched to a secret website.
“I’ve been doing this for many years, so I know what looks fake and what’s not,” Dickson told Reuters.
He also noted in the interview that he made A$2,000 ($1,850 U.S.) in web traffic in August after his blog clocked a million hits.
But Dickson has come under fire after multiple media outlets, including CNN and Bloomberg, picked up on his story.
On Thursday Dickson tweeted, “After the #5C/#5S is out http://SonnyDickson.com is going away,” later following up with a tweet that said his site was “getting a lot of hate” and claiming that he had received death threats via email.
It is unclear why Dickson tweeted these messages.
He told Reuters that if Apple asked him to shut down his website he would, even noting that he would like to work there someday.
Apple may have its eye on him. He noted in an interview with Fortune that Cupertino, California – Apple’s home base – computers visited his website over 900 times last month. He added that U.S. Homeland Security visited 67 times.
Dickson’s last blog post, added Thursday, shows detailed photos of the iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner hardware that will reportedly be installed in the phone’s home button.
“Notably, the sensors and flex cable bear a remarkably different design when compared to the iPhone 5 home button – and even previous supposed 5S part leaks,” read Dickson’s post.
“While the design differences have yet to be technically assessed, they could have a whole lot to do with the rumored biometric fingerprint scanner that numerous pundits and analysts have predicted. In fact, we’d count on it.”
Apple is hosting a media event on Sept. 10 where the new iPhones will reportedly be announced.
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