With a San Mateo, California, court Friday unsealing the documents in the `lost' prototype 4G iPhone case, it has now been revealed that the Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally asked Gizmodo. com - the tech blog which leaked the details of the handset - to return the wayward phone.

The unsealed documents, associated with the search warrant for raiding Gizmodo blogger Jason Chen's house, also highlighted the fact that Apple considers the iPhone to be a valuable device. The company has been extremely secretive about any forthcoming versions of the device, which was first released in 2007 and has thus far sold over 50 million units.

With the 4G iPhone model likely to be launched this summer, the `leak' of the details of the handset supposedly made Apple fear "huge" losses; and, as such, prompted the company to convince police officials to initiate a felony investigation.

Going by the April 23 search warrant by Matthew Broad, a detective with the San Mateo County Sheriff's office, an outside lawyer for the company said that the missing prototype was "invaluable" and the leak of its details was "immensely damaging" to the device's sales.

Meanwhile, the documents, unsealed at the behest of The Times and other media organizations, also revealed that the investigation by the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team - REACT - were commenced after Apple claimed that the phone prototype was probably stolen.