All good things must come to an end. Evan Blass, better known for the Twitter handle @evleaks, has announced his retirement. His days leaking upcoming phones and breaking news are over.
Tech companies can now breathe a sigh of relief because they've got one less leak source to worry about. In a tweet Sunday, Evan Blass made the announcement that he is retiring from leaking upcoming products. The @evleaks Twitter handle would remain active though but it will be more of a personal feed.
Why is he retiring?
"These matters are always somewhat complicated, but like many things, it mostly comes down to money. Trying to monetize a stream of Twitter leaks is not easy. First I tried monthly sponsorships. Then weekly. Then single sponsored tweets. I took donations - felt like online panhandling. It all adds up to an unsustainable living, and with a progressively worsening disease. I need to make sure I can prepare myself better for the future, financially," Blass explained.
Blass' first leak was in January 2011 for the HTC Inspire 4G. He's been in the phone leaking game for a while (he also wrote from 2005 to 2008 for Engadget) but it wasn't until August 2012 that he seriously considered leaking information as a business. Almost two years after that decision, he's managed to put @evleaks at the top of the list for reliable information on upcoming devices but nobody knew who he was. Then about a year ago, he decided to step out of anonymity and reveal his identity in an interview with Android Police.
By the time people knew @evleaks was Evan Blass, he had already amassed around 31,000 followers. On Sunday, the day he retired, Blass had well over 180,000 followers on Twitter. To some this might be a paltry number but it's actually impressive given that most of his tweets are just sneak peaks or teasers. These tweets don't offer ground-shattering, shocking news that could change the tech world although just one can create buzz for a potential product for weeks. Many of them don't even really pan out because that's just the nature of leaks.
Blass retiring will definitely be felt in the tech industry but it shouldn't be too long before another one comes to take his place. Asked who he thought had the potential, he named TK Tech News' TK O'Connor, adding "the man is a beast when it comes to leaking but he's also the nicest guy you'll ever meet."
