AbleComm Plays April Fool Gag Two Days Late

What day is April Fool's Day? That's right, April 1st. It appears that somebody either forgot to tell that to the folks at AbleComm, or they were suffering from such stunning inefficiency that the gag came out two days late, on April 3rd. Friday's story about Panasonic's cellphone plasma screens, in which AbleComm played small manufacturing role, was a fake.

The press release was dated April 3rd, and many blogs and news sites went with the story. It turns out that the mistimed press release caused such a fuss that a new release was released, as it were, and personal emails sent, like the one I got from PR Newswire's Michael Toole:

Hi Charlie. AbleComm issued a kill yesterday stating that this release was completely false. Can you update or remove this post?

Thank you.

Engadget's Nilay Patel sums it up:

Yep, we got punked, we'll admit it. Unlike us, however, AbleComm hasn't yet had the stones to issue its own retraction.

Panasonic Plans Plasma Screens For Cellphones [Gadget Lab]