Ever wonder how Apple uses the press to plant "controlled leaks" about upcoming products?
When it comes to new and upcoming products, Apple is as tight lipped as they come. They’ve practically trademarked the phrase, “We don’t comment on upcoming products”, and some have compared dealing with Apple to dealing with the Kremlin – where information can only emerges under their watchful and controlling eye.
Over the past few weeks, a few crumbs of info pertaining to the Apple Tablet have begun to emerge, most notably from the Wall Street Journal. These nuggets of info haven’t really spilled the beans on any groundbreaking information, but they have shed some light on both the expected introduction date (January 27th) and the planned launch (late March, early April). But lest you think that someone at Apple is running afoul of Apple’s strict policy of complete secrecy, it turns out that Apple typically uses the Wall Street Journal to plant “controlled leaks” whereby it can get information out to the public but save face at the same time just in case.
John Martellaro, a former Senior Marketing Manager at Apple recently described how Apple goes about planting leaks to newspapers. And how does he know, you ask? Well, Martellaro planted a leak or two himself while employed at Apple.
The way it works is that a senior exec will come in and say, “We need to release this specific information. John, do you have a trusted friend at a major outlet? If so, call him/her and have a conversation. Idly mention this information and suggest that if it were published, that would be nice. No e-mails!”
The communication is always done in person or on the phone. Never via e-mail. That’s so that if there’s ever any dispute about what transpired, there’s no paper trail to contradict either party’s version of the story. Both sides can maintain plausible deniability and simply claim a misunderstanding. That protects Apple and the publication
… The net result is that Apple gets the desired information published by a major Wall Street news outlet, but can always claim, if required, it was all an editorial misunderstanding. The WSJ is protected as well.
Apple, though, also uses leaks to address issues not directly related to computing. For instance, remember that it was the Wall Street Journal who broke the news that Steve Jobs had received a liver transplant during the 6 months he was taking a leave of absence from Apple.
So that, in a nutshell, is the secret to Apple’s secrecy. We basically know about Apple what Apple wants us to know, and while that may be frustrating to the average Apple fan, it’s that iron curtain that gets the Apple community so excited for an impending Apple event.
