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Apple Shifting Tactics on Suppressing Product Leaks?

not a huge surprise to me here.
its news, and the more you talk the more hype and all that.

the more people talk about their products the better in all reality.
 
I believe this i bad for Apple. Back on the good old times, every little bit of information we could get was worth gold to a real Mac fan. Now we get loads of it.. Everytime something is leaked, I just go "bleh" now...
 
Im just curious, because I just recently got into the whole Mac news/rumors scene this summer...what made ThinkSecret different than this site, or a few of the other Apple news/rumor sites? Why were they sued/shut down, and does that mean MacRumors could be at some point as well?
 
thacube said:
probably better for Apple. If a site receives a letter from Apple legal, it can be seen as a confirmation of the story's accuracy. if Apple doesn't respond to any, it leaves people wondering what's real and what's fake
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Just send the C&D to all sites, though Apple can probably save money on lawyers by only chasing the problematic articles.
 
That's funny, just before lunch (and seeing this thread), I was planning to post a mild complaint/rant about Apple's secretive release policies. And then just as I came back I saw this thread.

My present frustration, and I'm sure many may share it, is with the Macbook/Pro rumors and lack of real information. I'm in the market for a new notebook, and would love to have some details on what Apple plans to offer relative to what I can get in the PC market. I may not mind spending more on a comparable Apple product - but I need to know what the actual timeline for availability is.

To that end, I really feel Apple's policies of keeping things so close to the vest is becoming a detriment to their overall sales. How many have they lost because an impatient impulse buyer (like myself) ran out of patience with their marketing tactics (or lack thereof)? And every single loss is a loss of another customer to market for them.

With their stock prices tumbling, I really think they need to look at different ways of advertising and asserting their position in the market. Would it really kill them to let consumers know they had xx Macbooks with xx specs planned for xx timeframe? My guess is many people like myself might be more than happy to hold off a purchase to wait for the (theoretically better) Apple product. But with their secretive, maybe yes, maybe no, rumor based marketing, it makes it very difficult to make an informed decision.
 
rockstarjoe said:
I think Apple likes to "selectively leak" certain info. Some things they let slip, some they keep secret.
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I stopped working for Apple two years ago. At least when I left, I would agree with your statement. There were times when marketing would come in and explain their timelines for future advertising. At times, I would wonder why certain information was being disseminated, and it seemed odd. Keep in mind, they wouldn't have product names or details but the calendar indicated when advertising campaigns would begin and end up to 1.5 years in the future... There were other odd occurances but this one sticks out in my head.
 
Narrowing Focus would be good

Apple should narrow its focus, concentrating on only trade secrets that, leaked too soon, will help competitors. By that standard, the shape of a new iPod and the colors it'll have aren't worth the trouble.

On the other hand, t features of a new and inexpensive mini-sized Macbook or a touch screen laptop, also small, are worth protecting, since competitors will be affected by what Apple does.

--Michael W. Perry, Seattle
 
Opposite Tact

The smart thing would be to somehow use the rumor mill to their advantage, rather than sicking lawyers on everyone. Rumors generate excitement.
 
Too many good fakes.

Apple doesn't need to counter rumors any more. There are so many FAKE rumors that no one believes anything.

Remember when the "fat boy" iPod was leaked? I'd say a good 80% of the people out there didn't believe it. Remember the latest Nano? Same thing. It was "an obvious fake". Then again, there have been countless more fakes out there.
 
I remember when the aluminium keyboard leaked back in 2007 and because there was no heavy treatment from Apple legal, many assumed it was a prototype.

Then Steve made some reference like “you may have seen this on the internet” during the introduction of the 2007 iMac.

I think he might be relaxing a bit about it now. He made a joke at “Let's Rock” about it being “funny” that accessory manufacturers announce products before they (Apple) do.
 
.. rumors like 'the brick' are 100% crap and apple doesnt waste their time with "huge" information. the biggest disapointement is knowing that 9to5's definition of huge, and my definition of huge, are very different.
 
thacube said:
probably better for Apple. If a site receives a letter from Apple legal, it can be seen as a confirmation of the story's accuracy. if Apple doesn't respond to any, it leaves people wondering what's real and what's fake
Click to expand...
If I had any say in it I would pick one of the most insane unusual rumors I could possibly find and that would be the one I sent a C&D against. I can't claim I'd have a strategy. It would just be funny to see the community burn with speculation after the C&D delivery was announced.

Maybe this is why I don't work for Apple. :D
 
rittchard said:
My present frustration, and I'm sure many may share it, is with the Macbook/Pro rumors and lack of real information. I'm in the market for a new notebook, and would love to have some details on what Apple plans to offer relative to what I can get in the PC market. I may not mind spending more on a comparable Apple product - but I need to know what the actual timeline for availability is.
Click to expand...
Where do you get your information for the not-yet-available Dells, Gateways, HP's, etc...and how far in advance do they release their timelines for new product releases?
 
Breegy said:
But this also stops people from buying the current products. Getting rid of the old inventory is why they never announce products ahead of time. They make more money of people buy up the products, ignorant of when updated ones are released, then even more people become interested when there is something new and some even sell their old products to get the new product.
Click to expand...

In theory you make a good point. However, how many Mac users actually go on MR or other comparable sites? Most consumers just buy a computer and don't geek out the way we do. And even those of us who keep track of product cycles and read all the rumors sometimes buy just out of need. My example being that I bought my son a MBP this summer (he needed it for video editing immediately) even though we both knew that a major design update would come soon.

I agree with some of the other posters that these sites really are great promotion for Apple's products. I mean, how many fan/rumor sites does Dell have?
 
From a purely rumor loving point of view, there would be no fun in following a company that laid bare all its plans. But, there have to be enough rumors to not make waiting painstaking. For example, I am very curious about the new MacBooks, and so far we have the brick manufacturing process and a date. A few more specs released would keep the tease going. The brick riddles from 9 to 5 stretched rumor watching fun to slightly painful. (And yes I know I care too much!)

From the point of view of someone looking at Apple as a company, I would say Apple's trend been against being the temperamental, difficult artist who thinks different and gone more toward everybody's favorite, cos it works well, computing store. And suing kids who post secrets about your upcoming work..well...that looks more like a temperamental artist than it does a magnanimous company.
 
Small White Car said:
Were you not around for the iPod Mini? All the rumor sites said it would be $199, but it was actually $249. (If I'm wrong it was something like that, where the rumor was lower than the real price.)

Because of that, the 'net was pretty hostile in all of is reviews. "Overpriced" was the main conclusion.

Of course, it wasn't too expensive, as proven by the fact that it was sold out for months. The Mini was priced just fine.

But the fact remained that it got crappy reviews for weeks simply because of the rumor sites' guesses.

Not all publicity is good publicity.
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true, but some negative reviews from people complaining about price isn't enough of an argument to say all rumor press isn't positive. each new product gets bad reviews from someone anyway and as you said, it was sold out for months anyway. i still say the free press and hype from rumor sites is worth it to apple to not put out cease and desist letters.

but then there's an arugment that apple doing that increases its own mystique and drives hype up around products, so that could work as well.
 
It's probably somewhat of a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it keeps Apple's name in the news and froths much of the fanbase into a frenzy.

On the other hand, it no doubt hurts product launches (see the latest iPod event). It also likely hurts existing product lines - how many of us are holding out on the current Mac line for the new models?
 
CWallace said:
It's probably somewhat of a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it keeps Apple's name in the news and froths much of the fanbase into a frenzy.

On the other hand, it no doubt hurts product launches (see the latest iPod event). It also likely hurts existing product lines - how many of us are holding out on the current Mac line for the new models?
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It's not clear that these things were not already happening to the same extent that they will happen in the future, even if Apple lessens its efforts to suppress leaks.
 
schneb said:
The smart thing would be to somehow use the rumor mill to their advantage...
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They do. If there have to be leaks, keep the market buzz going, but leak just enough disinformation as well, so that anyone betting on a leak is taking a risk and knows it.

I remember sitting with a bunch of engineers in a Silicon Valley hang-out (long long ago)... when it seemed like someone nearby was too much ears, we'd just make up some fictitious product and talk about all its technical problems and schedule hits.

.
 
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