With the rumor that HTC may be leaking rumors themself, we’re hearing that the move may be a trap to try to catch those loose-lipped employees who are leaking the information to the public. In one instance, WMExperts reported that HTC was apparently peeved with an internal source who had leaked an HTC HD2 ROM for the T-Mobile edition early, a ROM that the company thought was supposed to be secure. To combat leaks, HTC decided to create an “updated” ROM, similar the the T-Mobile ROM but enabled landscape mode for Manilla, and see who would post the leak. WMExperts says, from their tipster:

…its a trap, they have a certain Serial and IMEI of the device that it was suppose to be for…

It looks like HTC may be embarking on the Apple route to control leaks, especially with high profile devices. The company is now engaged in a cat and mouse game with internal leakers.

While leaks certainly may hurt companies, especially in terms of sales when consumers hold back on buying current generation products and instead opt to wait for future products with more features. With HTC, it’s hard to say whether leaks in general hurt or help the company, especially with the case of the huge XDA-Developers community. In general, XDA-Developers may in fact alleviate the firm of some technical support as well as rid HTC of the responsibility to bring ROM upgrades to some older devices with ROM cooks who work on the periphery of legal issues surrounding the release of ROMS for use on devices that they were not intended for. Moreover, with XDA-Developers exploiting new functionalities out of devices, HTC does in fact receive a lot of press, even when the company doesn’t generate the buzz themselves.

(via: WMExperts)