Apple's Focus on Product Secrecy Thwarted by its Massive Supply Chain

[iGrip]

Given that Apple has always had tight security, and given that they have recently made it even tighter, my conclusion is that the recent "leaks" in the media are really stories planted by Apple to get advanced publicity. You can't buy that kind of PR!

Apple knows how to best get a lot of buzz about their products, and how to make sure that lots of people are waiting to buy on day one. So far, the strategy has worked very well.

 

[DisMyMac]

Hit a nerve on the iMac, my wife's just totalled and we don't know whether to just buy another or wait wait wait but she really does need a computer. Hope to heck in a few days we'll get the good news?

Tomorrow is likely for iMac announcements. Otherwise, not until Holiday season.

 

[iGrip]

An Apple computer is not just a computer. Once you learn that, you will understand the secrecy involved with them. The reason why the culture and community exists around Apple products.

It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.

 

[Kebabselector]

Just curious what life changing product you want? A updated MacPro?

Probably widgets on the iPhone start screen.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Treating customers like mushrooms.
Adults need info and honest roadmaps to make purchasing decisions.
Not a smoke and mirrors juvenile marketing strategy to whip iSheeple into
a frenzy with calculated delays and "one more thing" dog and pony shows.

 

[inscrewtable]

The old Apple issue of security is an anachronism now. It is only inevitable that it's rise to global domination would introduce a steady stream of leaks.

Whereas the big surprise factor generated massive headlines with the 'one more thing' schtick, worked in Apple's favour, now the reverse is true; the steady stream of ever more inconsequential leaks generate smaller buzz but over a longer time frame.

 

[iChrist]

It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.

That's right. Pol Pot used a mac too.

Mac is not just a computer.

 

[hamkor04]

You want to be surprised, stop following rumor sites.

I think he want to say, "Rumour sites is not to be necessarily 100% accurate"

 

[malak]

It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.

what a clever (anti-)troll !

 

[hamkor04]

How about doubling down on quality control?

That would be Cook's next "move"

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Build them all here in the USA in one giant factory.

they will, if they figure out how to pay (terms of tax, salary and etc) same as in China, or convince millions of users to buy new idevices with +50% price tag

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give me a break...this is not national security here. It's a friggin computer. You end up pissing off customers unclear on when the next iMac is coming out.

They did indeed

 

[aerok]

hahahahaha. Yep, There are like 20 samsungrumors.com sites. Riiiiiight.

ah, wow, maybe one day for samsung but not even on the same level of interest from apple, not even close! They're cloning of apple products is mind numbing

Go back to what I replied to. The S3 is a popular gadget no matter what you think it is. It had millions of preorders and Samsung managed to keep it under the lid by having alternates fake S3s.

PS. Stating a positive fact about another company that is not Apple does not make me an Apple hater

 

[SpyderBite]

To change the way we do things. Like the iPhone did and the iPad did.

We were just as productive before either of those were around. In fact, as a society we were probably more productive without them.

 

[aerok]

We were just as productive before either of those were around. In fact, as a society we were probably more productive without them.

The iPad can be amazing for people that need handheld computing.

ie. Real Estate agents, American Football coaches and many more that I cannot think of.

 

[aerok]

It cracks me up when people claim that an Apple product is "just a computer". It is not.

It is a way of life; an identity. It is a way to show the world just exactly who you are and what you are all about. A rebel - a member of a small, exclusive club that KNOWS what is best and good and right.

It proves that you have good taste. It proves that you have more money than most people. It shows the world that you are made of The Right Stuff.

Anybody can buy a Microsoft product, but it takes a special, superior type of person to buy an Apple product. Albert Einstein used Apple computers. Mahatma Ghandi. John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

They all were people who Think Different.

Your level of sarcasm is outstanding. Are you trying to dethrone AppleScruff1 as king of sarcasm here?

 

[Snowshiro]

According to a handful of Apple employees who spoke to us on condition of anonymity

In an article about Apple losing control of their secrets. Oh the irony.

 

[cdmoore74]

You want to be surprised, stop following rumor sites.

True statement but you basically have to get off the internet which defeats the purpose of having an iGadget.

 

[aerok]

True statement but you basically have to get off the internet which defeats the purpose of having an iGadget.

In all honesty, I cannot count the amount of people I know that never use Safari or any news-related apps on any iGadget or any other smartphones.

 

[JAT]

I love how Apple employees are speaking "on the condition of anonymity" about internal policies regarding secrecy. Ironic much?

Exactly was I was going to write. I find it hilarious.

Um, no. It's only ironic if the leak is SJ or Cook. And one of them is dead, so probably not.

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Yeah, you know, washing machines, air conditioning, and water filtration.

I would kill for a serious advancement in water filtration that wasn't insanely wasteful or added other particles to the water while taking some out.

 

[WB2Colorado]

I found it funny that Microsoft was able to keep the Surface under lock and key for years without leaks and Apple can't even keep the next iPhone a secret for one year, let alone the iPad.

 

[Cavepainter]

they will, if they figure out how to pay (terms of tax, salary and etc) same as in China, or convince millions of users to buy new idevices with +50% price tag

That's what they would love for us to believe. Poor Apple can just barely hang on by their fingernails. They made around $26,000,000,000.00 in 2011.

Why would one of the most profitable companies in the world need to have a 50% hike to be able to still make any money on their products if they were domestically produced? If they made only 10 billion last year and had some more of their plants here, that would be disastrous for the company, no doubt.

If we add up each workstation on the assembly line, how many hours of human labor does it actually take to manufacture an Iproduct? How long does it actually take to assemble an Iphone or an Ipod?

I like Apple products myself, but at some point you gotta wonder- when is outsourcing gonna hit YOUR family? I work in the film business and I'm watching our labor market slowly being squeezed to death by overseas competition. I'm sure the Tech market is getting hit even worse. The problem isn't that the company you work for isn't going to make any money doing the work here- the problem is they can make MORE money by outsourcing the work. Make more money or less? In business, that's a no-brainer decision. Until it takes your job, of course.

How does ANY company that makes stuff in America make money? Its obviously not possible, right?

 

[MacinDoc]

I found it funny that Microsoft was able to keep the Surface under lock and key for years without leaks and Apple can't even keep the next iPhone a secret for one year, let alone the iPad.

The point is that it's hard to keep it under lock and key once it leaves the building to be built by someone else.

Now exactly how long was the Surface in production before it was introduced?

 

[zephyrnoid]

On a tangentially related note. Supplier value chain leaks and insider espionage– while accounting for the lion's share of unauthorized release of product knowledge; they are not the only possible source.
Much belittled is the awesome power of the collective subconscious and it's modern embodiment- Group Think.
The more vociferously that a global community of interest participates in the future-think of innovation, the close in coincidence that their guesses, prognostications and wishes come to products actually in development.
I find it amusing that only three weeks ago, more than a few members of this forum were declaring rumors of a MacMini "Pure Fantasy"

 

[kingtj]

re: stop following rumor sites?

That's really beside the point. Fact is, the rumor sites mainly serve as a place to announce people's best guesses and then read as others hash out those guesses in message forum replies.

If there are leaks, sure, they get posted up here and discussed. It would be crazy NOT to, on a website full of interested Apple fans and customers who are so clearly following the company's moves.

But once some product info leaks, it leaks. I could ban macrumors.com from my browser and never look at it again, and I'd still hear about the leaked info someplace else -- even if it was a few days later.

Truth is, Apple's clinging to the element of surprise is becoming a bit outdated anyway. When you had Apple almost exclusively selling to consumers and Jobs himself was pumping people up into frenzies with regular keynote speeches, it made perfect sense.

Now, you've got quite a few businesses using Apple products and the last thing they want is total surprise about what's coming next, and when. I'd venture to say that if it weren't for some of these advance product leaks and credible rumors, many wouldn't stay invested in the Apple ecosystem.

Business I.T. staff needs to have a pretty good handle on upgrade roadmaps, and a sense of when it makes the most sense to pull the trigger on upgrade purchases. (You clearly can't just rely on a set timetable with Apple, as the huge delay in a major new Mac Pro tower revision illustrates.)

You want to be surprised, stop following rumor sites.

 

[Jiz]

I wouldn't be surprised if Foxconn mandated that its employees work in underground "product secrecy lairs" for a year or so at a time to keep Apple's goods under wraps.

The management will leak these things for the price of a bowl of rice then act all concerned when Apple investigates.

 

[DisMyMac]

Build them all here in the USA in one giant factory.

Also build monorails and make everything free please.