Apple’s ‘Obsession With Secrecy’ Isn’t Always Working

Dan Frommer argues that Apple’s efforts to keep product announcements secret aren’t working:

But it’s hard to argue that Apple is very effective at preventing leaks these days. For instance, there were very few details left for Apple marketing head Phil Schiller to announce during this month’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.

Take the new iPhone 3GS, which debuted last week. Pretty much everyone knew about its faster speed, better camera, and voice commands weeks ago. Details about the name leaked out days before the event. And thanks to John Gruber’s Daring Fireball, we’d even heard ahead of time that Apple would refresh its MacBook lineup during the event.

But Apple didn’t even try to keep a lot of this stuff secret — the new 3GS hardware features like the video camera and compass, for example, were revealed when they started seeding the OS 3.0 betas. And while yes, I heard the “3GS” name a few weeks in advance, that wasn’t a big deal — it’s just an S. The secrets Apple guards the tightest aren’t the updates to existing products, but the brand-new products. So far so good with the tablet, for example.

★ Wednesday, 24 June 2009