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January 19, 2008

internet

The story of a successful raid on Apple’s trade secrets

Posted Jan. 19, ’08, 12:51 PM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | Internet

There's something in the airSeth Weintraub, of Computerworld, has pieced together a descriptive timeline of the events that led to the unveiling of the MacBook Air before Steve Jobs had a chance to do so himself. From the very first leaks claiming that Apple would launch a new product at the Macworld Expo called MacBook Air and that it was the “worst kept secret at Apple” to Macrumors tricky idea of registering the macbookair.com domain name, he has it all covered.

Though it is a fun read, I have to disagree with Kasper Jade’s assertion that “it worked out for the greater good for the Mac community as a whole”. As much as we enjoy the clueless predictions and idle rumormongering that precedes each Steve Jobs keynote, it only ends up being a disappointment if we actually figure out what is being released at the keynote in advance, as is evident by the post keynote plunge in Apple’s stock price this time around. Like the proverbial hen that laid golden eggs, it is exciting only as long as we don’t know what is coming our way.

As it became clearer, with more evidence pouring in every now and then, that the MacBook Air was real, the speculation kept touching new highs, with people starting to expect WiMax and 3G integration, a completely wireless notebook that featured induction charging, flash memory as standard and probably a Multi-touch screen. When those expectations weren’t met, we were only left with disappointment “in the air” and the stock price suffered a fall. I think that if this same MacBook Air had hit us out of the blue, people would have been a lot more excited by the miraculous engineering that has gone into the making of this product than they currently are.

So, while I applaud the rumor sites for hitting the bulls-eye with their intelligent sniffing and investigation prowess, I hope they are not quite so accurate the next time they get an opportunity to play detective. We don’t want another Think Secret happening now, do we?


8 Comments

Neil Fiertel said:

The macbook air is a flash boor to me.
However the annoncement brfore Macworld of the incredible upgrade to the Mac Pro, now that is what I have been waiting for for years and I am going for it. The time Capsule is likely fine for many but one wonders if three or four drives can be daisy chained to it to give sufficient space for large data consumers. If so, that is a good announcement. I am sure there are those all sweaty to download movies but its short active usage time limit and the fact that one cannot study it over and over as one can do with a Blockbuster rental means it is a total dud to me.

January 19, 2008 3:09 PM
Dave-O said:

While I agree that the "Mac community" doesn't benefit from these rumors, I don't think you can attribute Apple's stock to disappointment that fringe speculation didn't pan out. Apple's stock price was plummeting before the keynote, losing almost $15 in one day. You can't ignore little contributing factors like losses in the markets over 3 weeks that completely wiped out last year's gains.

January 19, 2008 6:35 PM
Isaac said:
As much as we enjoy the clueless predictions and idle rumormongering that precedes each Steve Jobs keynote, it only ends up being a disappointment if we actually figure out what is being released at the keynote in advance, as is evident by the post keynote plunge in Apple’s stock price this time around.

You really think that Apple's stock fell because the kind of people who read Apple rumor sites and care were disappointed?

No, Apple's stock fell because the Air is a bad idea, or anyway those people who had stock thought it was. Apple's stock fell because there is a feeling that the product will fail, that their product lineup for the next year was weak, that they aren't innovating (though they may be).

I mean, it's just a thin laptop. So what?

January 19, 2008 10:05 PM
Goobimama said:

First of all I wonder how Apple keeps it's secrets in the first place! I mean, it is so easy for someone to slip somewhere and let out a tasty secret. Maybe an anonymous postcard to macrumours.com (you know, if Steve yells at you, send out a postcard).

January 20, 2008 3:36 AM
danham Author Profile Page said:

Stock prices respond to lots of things that are "in the air," so this one product is unlikely to be the whole story.

That said, it is a niche product. A very cool one, but not in the same market-dominating league as the iPod or iPhone, so no surprise that investors would comparer this year's announcements unfavorably to past ones.

Finally, since when are the rumor sites charged with maintaining the well-being of the "Mac community" anyway? Not their job.

-dan

January 20, 2008 6:46 AM
fletcher Author Profile Page said:

Historically I think you might find that Apple's stock usually declines after their keynote and then rises again in the weeks following. Right after the keynote is a good time to buy most years.

Buy on the rumor, sell on the reality.

I think the speculation does hurt Apple because it sets up unrealistic expectations among potential customers.

To me, sussing out rumors is not worth of being called journalism. It's just tabloid paparazzi reporting like you find in People or TMZ. I've stopped reading all the rumors sites. Not only are they wrong all the time, but they take all the surprise out of the keynote when they're right!

It's like finding your presents hidden before Christmas morning and then having to pretend you're surprised.

January 20, 2008 9:28 AM
WHO CARES said:

HEADLINE: "The story of a successful raid on Apple’s trade secrets"

http://www.macuser.com/internet/the_story_of_a_successful_raid.php

False headline

Lousy opinion

Waste of time

Who cares

BETA Macworld needs re-thinking and serious re-design


January 20, 2008 10:08 AM
Gordon anderson said:

The way Apple runs such a tight ship I doubt these "leaks" are anything but deliberate manipulation and hype creation by Apple. They plant ( or feed) exactly what they want to get out, and come down hard on anything that gets out that they don't want to.

January 20, 2008 3:49 PM

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