Apple: A Ship That Leaks From the Top?
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 15, 2008 at 11:28 AM PT
When Daily Variety broke the news that Pixar had hired writers for the pitch that became the 2007 release, ‘Ratatouille,’ Steve Jobs tracked the reporter down at the Sundance Film Festival, demanding to know her sources and threatening to fire the film’s writers. He called her on the private line of a rented condo–a number she had not given out to anyone. She still doesn’t know how he found it.”
Beyond the technology on display at Tuesday’s Apple event, what was perhaps most interesting was the accuracy with which it had been predicted. Astonishing really, given Apple’s near-monomaniacal secrecy. With the exception of that bogus $800 MacBook story, nearly every single rumor voiced in the weeks preceding Tuesday’s event was proven true–Apple’s new “brick” manufacturing process, aluminum enclosures for consumer MacBooks, LED backlit display, multi-touch glass trackpads, the screaming fast new Nvidia GPUs, even the date of the MacBook event itself. So when CEO Steve Jobs took the stage and said, “we have some exciting new products to show you,” most everyone sitting in the audience already had a pretty damn good idea what they were about to be shown. And that’s got to bother Apple (AAPL), which has long argued that leaks dampen excitement around product launches and taken legal action against rumor sites that publish them. Certainly, Jobs, showman that he is, can’t be pleased that the rabbits he’d planned to pull out of his hat Tuesday were hopping willy-nilly about the stage before he even arrived.
But apparently there’s little Apple can do to stop it. Or it’s given up trying. Or something else. “There used to be saying at Apple,” Jobs recalled at our D5 conference: “Isn’t it funny? A ship that leaks from the top.”
Perhaps it’s time for that saying be brought back into popular usage.
Comments
The problem is, the leaks are not accurate. They are designed to raise expectations beyond what Apple will actually announce––$799 MacBook?––and seem like stock manipulation to me.
Posted by neal doughty at October 15th, 2008 at 10:40 amUltimately the company succeeds or fails based on actual products, not rumors on way or the other.
Furthermore, initial sales success can be more than overcome by production and design issues. Better to have a product that doesn’t sell well than one that is a huge hit only to have most of them come back for repair.
I’m more concern (for Apple) about these new laptop’s QC and design than whether they sell well or not.
Posted by Mac Beach at October 15th, 2008 at 1:39 pmsteve jobs as magician is getting old
he had a few hat tricks but now it’s all hat and no rabbit
Posted by Sam Harrison at October 15th, 2008 at 1:45 pmThe quote comes from the 80’s British TV series, Yes Minister:
“The ship of state, Bernard, is the only ship that leaks from the top.” Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby.
Posted by Charles Miller at October 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pm