Apple is full of it, of course. Secrecy hurts customers, particularly business customers. It makes planning much harder when there's not even a vague roadmap, let alone knowledge of the next year of products.
Surprises are for children's birthday toys. They're completely inappropriate for technology.
Completely inappropriate? Nonsense. In a highly competitive manufacturing business, leaked information can be incredibly costly when it allows competitors to anticipate new products or features and respond accordingly. Samsung would be delighted if they could have a detailed roadmap of Apple’s plans for the next five years.
Perhaps. But does it harm consumers. There’s a difference.
Will a leak of a new machine harm sales of the current one? Maybe. Does it harm the consumer? No - one could argue that it helps them because they don’t waste money on a machine a month before the new one comes out with more features at the same price.
Everyone knows a new phone will come out each year. The people who want the latest features wait. Those that aren’t so concerned don’t. Knowing the features ahead of time helps them actually make a choice.
Nonsense. Leaks are by definition unverified information. Consumers making choices based on unverified information can very much be unhelpful and even potentially harmful. For instance, despite the contractual laudatory superlatives, the great Ming Chi Kuo is always making pronouncements about upcoming Apple products followed by revisions and corrections to change details and timelines on features predicted in upcoming device models. After several revisions, he’s sometimes right, but he’s also oft-flat-out-wrong. Nonetheless, with the oft-applied reputational boosts attributed to Kuo, consumers might be led to read the info provided as a sure thing and advance or delay their product purchases, only to find out they guessed wrong and could’ve had a feature they wanted by waiting a few months, or could’ve gone ahead and bought the current device because the thing Kuo said was coming didn’t.
The reality is, everybody knows there’s a new iPhone update coming once a year, and at some point it may be worth waiting an extra few months to see what the new model has before making a purchase. It’s also true that Apple will occasionally make an early announcement about a product or feature under development months ahead of time, because they know consumers might wait for their thing rather than jumping to a competitor that has or will have a similar thing out first.
The irony of the Apple White Knight squad rushing to the rescue on AppleInsider is pretty rich.
We all know exactly why we’re here.
Yes, it is pretty clear why you're here.
So you scrupulously skip over any articles that offer information on future products AI may have received from anonymous or curated sources? Good for you! How disciplined. In fact, I'm sure so many people here are so pious that AI must see a massive traffic drop when they post those articles.
Leaks don't hurt consumers any more than Apple's own decisions do (eliminating useful ports on their devices, talk about hurting consumers). Why didn't the letter explain "how" it hurts consumers?
Apple is full of it, of course. Secrecy hurts customers, particularly business customers. It makes planning much harder when there's not even a vague roadmap, let alone knowledge of the next year of products.
Surprises are for children's birthday toys. They're completely inappropriate for technology.
No you're full of it. You have zero cred, especially about saying how "your research" showed Intel CPU's were better performers than ASi. As usual, you're passing off your opinion as fact.
I 100% agree with Apple. I hate the deluge of iPhone and Mac articles proclaiming to know what's going to be released next. I never read them or make any purchasing plans because of them. The ONLY source that is trusted with new release hardware/software is Apple themselves. All the rest are just guesses and lies that create expectations that are completely out of line with Apple's actual projection of its business. I urge all, to ignore the "leaks" and just focus on what Apple actually announces and releases.
Anyone who says it doesn't harm consumers hasn't actually thought it through. That does not mean leaks can also, in some cases, be helpful to consumers. It's not either/or.
Off the top of my head -- some harms to consumers :
* leak may not be correct or Apple may change a feature or product at the last minute. Any decisions made by consumer based on leaked info are based on bad or incorrect info.
* leak may be incorrect. 3rd party accessory manufactured based on leak may not actually work correctly or fit. Consumer buying said accessory ahead of release in order to have it when the new Apple product arrives at their door has a piece of useless 3rd party junk.
* Apple may decide not to announce leaked product or hold it back for more work and consumers who pushed off buying something they needed in anticipation of the newer one now are SOL.
There are probably a dozen more obvious harms that you could come up with with a half hour of thought.
There are also advantages consumers gain by leaks, such as, if the leak is correct, advance knowledge that may help them make a "better" decision on a coming purchase
* are decisions made on bad info any worse than decisions made on no info? * how many consumers buy accessories for a product before it’s released? And those products can generally be returned. Seriously? This is quite the stretch.
* if someone pushes off buying a product that is delayed or not released then they can simply buy what’s available now. How is this a significant harm to the consumer?
all of your purported ’harms’ are minimal at best. You almost sound like a lawyer for Apple who has to come up with some excuse to justify their position.
I hate the deluge of iPhone and Mac articles proclaiming to know what's going to be released next. I never read them or make any purchasing plans because of them.
Sure you do.
AppleInsider, the site you've found useful enough to spend 300+ posts on, wouldn't exist if it weren't for juicy rumor articles. As wouldn't MacRumors, MacNN, and those that preceded them: MacOSRumors (boy that guy was a bit of a headcase—site is still up, tho!), and the granddaddy of all rumor mills, the column written by "Mac The Knife" in the back of MacWeek Magazine, a publication you had to *apply* get access to. Sure, sites like AI have grown and now offer a broad range of editorial content. But I'm sure they know what gets the most clicks.
So quit yer clucking. The more Apple pretends it's an impenetrable castle, the more its mighty walls will leak, the more it will spread far and wide. And closing your eyes and plugging your ears and going "la la la la" won't make it go away.
I’d rather know a company’s product plan ahead of time so I can plan accordingly if next year’s model is just a small refresh or a serious overhaul.
In the days before the torrent leak stream, pre iPhone 4, there was always great consternation, "So do I buy a new iPhone now or do I wait until September when Apple usually releases its new phones." No matter what, consumers have wait for the product release to buy it. Leaks only give a potential view of upcoming product release. People now know if they are thinking about upgrading my phone, maybe I should wait until fall to see what Apple puts out, leaks or no leaks
I really used to enjoy the big splash launches and being surprised like I was as a kid on Christmas morning. Does some a-hole who's been specifically entrusted with preserving Apple's secrecy, usually in the course of their employment or paid service, ruin the surprise by pulling a total dick move and outing Apple's secrets to the pack of salivating journalists and tech bloggers eager for an inside scoop bother me? Hell yeah. Am I damaged or harmed in any way? Hell no.
Disappointment is part of life, just as people who get-off or get paid to be a dick and harm their benefactor for their own selfish gains, or just because they enjoy being a dick or ruining other people's surprises are always part of life. The problem is that you cannot totally avoid people who have no respect for others, do not deal with others in an honest human-human form of currency, and those who have no problem biting the hand that feeds them.
I do feel bad for the Apple employees and everyone in the development chain who try to do the right thing and look forward to the excitement and pride of seeing their "baby" revealed to the world with a little bit of splash, ceremony, and celebration. The douche-bags of the world obviously despise seeing people other than themselves enjoying any of the non-monetary rewards and fruits of their hard work and sacrifice that the launch ceremonies provide.
This is sadly just where we are in today's cruelty-as-a-service (CAAS) and self absorbed world. Like it or not, and as an adult, you have to learn to put up with it and try to insulate yourself from the parasites who are out to harm you and others for their own perverted pleasure or profit, just like you have to take precautions when walking in a tick-infested wilderness.
The "Apple lawyers" alluded to in this story are actually lawyers from China who are subcontracted by Apple (which this story didn't report.) I presume these lawyers are trying to help Apple by using local laws to punish the leakers (who appear to be unaffiliated with Apple or its subcontractors.) However these lawyers do not appear to be holding to American standards of law or human rights. I guess they don't have to, since they live in a dictatorship, not in the US. But Apple in the USA should have told them that they need to respect all human rights as defined both in local law and also in the US constitution.
Personally, if I was Tim Cook, I would fire those lawyers (that is, if they were previously instructed to respect US laws.) However Cook seems very friendly to that dictatorship and I can't see him doing that.
I’d rather know a company’s product plan ahead of time so I can plan accordingly if next year’s model is just a small refresh or a serious overhaul.
In the days before the torrent leak stream, pre iPhone 4, there was always great consternation, "So do I buy a new iPhone now or do I wait until September when Apple usually releases its new phones." No matter what, consumers have wait for the product release to buy it. Leaks only give a potential view of upcoming product release. People now know if they are thinking about upgrading my phone, maybe I should wait until fall to see what Apple puts out, leaks or no leaks
The release of new iPhones has become extremely predictable. There are no rumors about that.
But with other products that is not the case. When will the next iPad or Airpod be coming out? Having an idea can save you from buying a product that becomes a year old a week after you buy it.
Comments
Don the Con said the same about leakers of his corruption -- that they harmed the nation.
* how many consumers buy accessories for a product before it’s released? And those products can generally be returned. Seriously? This is quite the stretch.
all of your purported ’harms’ are minimal at best. You almost sound like a lawyer for Apple who has to come up with some excuse to justify their position.
AppleInsider, the site you've found useful enough to spend 300+ posts on, wouldn't exist if it weren't for juicy rumor articles. As wouldn't MacRumors, MacNN, and those that preceded them: MacOSRumors (boy that guy was a bit of a headcase—site is still up, tho!), and the granddaddy of all rumor mills, the column written by "Mac The Knife" in the back of MacWeek Magazine, a publication you had to *apply* get access to. Sure, sites like AI have grown and now offer a broad range of editorial content. But I'm sure they know what gets the most clicks.
So quit yer clucking. The more Apple pretends it's an impenetrable castle, the more its mighty walls will leak, the more it will spread far and wide. And closing your eyes and plugging your ears and going "la la la la" won't make it go away.
In the days before the torrent leak stream, pre iPhone 4, there was always great consternation, "So do I buy a new iPhone now or do I wait until September when Apple usually releases its new phones." No matter what, consumers have wait for the product release to buy it. Leaks only give a potential view of upcoming product release. People now know if they are thinking about upgrading my phone, maybe I should wait until fall to see what Apple puts out, leaks or no leaks
Personally, if I was Tim Cook, I would fire those lawyers (that is, if they were previously instructed to respect US laws.) However Cook seems very friendly to that dictatorship and I can't see him doing that.