Posted by Will Stabley on Jun 1, 2013 in News, Tech |
During this quiet period in which Apple’s next big things are still being worked on and there’s nothing meaningful for it to say, its boss Tim Cook is doing precisely that. He appeared for a talk at D11 this week because that’s what Apple CEOs do each time the annual event rolls around, but went out of his way not to say anything about his upcoming products. That approach hasn’t gone over well with some observers, particularly at a time when Apple’s rivals are hyping up their next big things as loudly as they can. But keeping quiet is a brilliant on Cook’s part, even as his counterparts can’t help but run their mouths.
Apple’s successful product launches over the past fifteen have revealed that there’s little to be gained by hyping a new class of product or even acknowledging its existence more than a couple months before it goes on sale. Talking up a new product any further in advance just makes it look late by the time it finally arrives, and causes the public to craft a largely fictional view of the product based on the incomplete dribs of information the company has put out there. That’s been highlighted of late by Google, whose founders are so excited about Glass that they’re not only showing it off a year before it’s ready, they’re putting it in the hands of a few thousand geeks as well. The public’s response to this incomplete product with no real features that some geeks are running around getting way too excited about nonetheless: WTF. Glass already has a mixed to negative reputation among the general public, because it’s being foisted on them at a time when even Google can’t tell them why they would want one. And then there’s Motorola continuing to embarrass itself by playing up its supposed X phone with such sketchy details that no one believes it when it says the device will ship this year.
Try to imagine the fate of the iPad if Tim Cook or Steve Jobs had spent a year hyping it before it was ready to ship, before Apple could tell the public why they should want to own a ten inch slab or what real world things they could use it for. Imagine further if Apple had given function-less iPad prototypes to a thousand geeks and told them to go run around showing off its total lack of features for a year before it went on sale. It’s difficult to picture how the iPad could have found its current level of success, or any success at all, if Apple had poisoned its reputation by asking the public to focus on it before it was worthy of anyone’s attention. Fault Tim Cook if you want for the fact that Apple’s new product completion dates are lining up such that he hasn’t had any new products to announce in the past six months. But credit him for keeping his mouth shut about them in the mean time; their chance of success depends greatly on his secrecy.
Will Stabley is the Founder and Senior Editor of Stabley Times.
During this quiet period in which Apple’s next big things are still being worked on and there’s nothing meaningful for it to say, its boss Tim Cook is doing precisely that. He appeared for a talk at D11 this week because that’s what Apple CEOs do each time the annual event rolls around, but went out of his way not to say anything about his upcoming products. That approach hasn’t gone over well with some observers, particularly at a time when Apple’s rivals are hyping up their next big things as loudly as they can. But keeping quiet is a brilliant on Cook’s part, even as his counterparts can’t help but run their mouths.
Apple’s successful product launches over the past fifteen have revealed that there’s little to be gained by hyping a new class of product or even acknowledging its existence more than a couple months before it goes on sale. Talking up a new product any further in advance just makes it look late by the time it finally arrives, and causes the public to craft a largely fictional view of the product based on the incomplete dribs of information the company has put out there. That’s been highlighted of late by Google, whose founders are so excited about Glass that they’re not only showing it off a year before it’s ready, they’re putting it in the hands of a few thousand geeks as well. The public’s response to this incomplete product with no real features that some geeks are running around getting way too excited about nonetheless: WTF. Glass already has a mixed to negative reputation among the general public, because it’s being foisted on them at a time when even Google can’t tell them why they would want one. And then there’s Motorola continuing to embarrass itself by playing up its supposed X phone with such sketchy details that no one believes it when it says the device will ship this year.
Try to imagine the fate of the iPad if Tim Cook or Steve Jobs had spent a year hyping it before it was ready to ship, before Apple could tell the public why they should want to own a ten inch slab or what real world things they could use it for. Imagine further if Apple had given function-less iPad prototypes to a thousand geeks and told them to go run around showing off its total lack of features for a year before it went on sale. It’s difficult to picture how the iPad could have found its current level of success, or any success at all, if Apple had poisoned its reputation by asking the public to focus on it before it was worthy of anyone’s attention. Fault Tim Cook if you want for the fact that Apple’s new product completion dates are lining up such that he hasn’t had any new products to announce in the past six months. But credit him for keeping his mouth shut about them in the mean time; their chance of success depends greatly on his secrecy.
Will Stabley is the Founder and Senior Editor of Stabley Times.