How Apple Does Controlled Leaks
January 5th, 2010 at 1:22 PM - by John Martellaro
Monday's article at the Wall Street Journal, which provided confirmation of an Apple tablet device, had all the earmarks of a controlled leak. Here's how Apple does it.
Often Apple has a need to let information out, unofficially. The company has been doing that for years, and it helps preserve Apple's consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products. I know, because when I was a Senior Marketing Manager at Apple, I was instructed to do some controlled leaks.
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.
In the case of yesterday's story, Walt Mossberg was bypassed so that Mr. Mossberg would remain above the fray, above reproach. Also, two journalists at the WSJ were involved. That way, each one could point the finger at the other and claim, "I thought he told me to run with this story! Sorry."
Finally, the story was posted online late Monday, eastern time, so no one could ever suggest there was any attempt to manipulate the stock market.
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.
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Controlled leaks are almost always the solution to a problem. In this case, it could have been that Apple needed to release the tablet information early because they wanted:
- to light a fire under a recalcitrant partner
- to float the idea of the US$1,000 price point and gauge reaction
- to panic/confuse a potential competitor about whom Apple had some knowledge
- to whet analyst and observer expectations to make sure the right kind and number of people show up at the (presumed) January 26 event. Apple hates empty seats and demands SRO at these events.
Of course, if Wall Street draws the right conclusions, and AAPL goes up, as it has, then everybody benefits. But the manipulation of stock is never the purpose. It's simply a favorable outcome of the process. Again, Apple is protected.
That's how Apple does controlled leaks, and the WSJ article from yesterday was a classic example.
48 Observer Comments
Actually this method is also an invention of Nokia and all news coming out of Apple is embargoed!
Wondering how much of the rumored 3D interface was adapted from the experimental 3D interface from, I think, the time of System 8.
I downloaded and manipulated the GUI. It was a brilliant visual and manipulative experience. Being experimental, it had no significant apps. It was developed by that free form method whose goal was to discover new things unexpectedly.
I think Apple introduced it before Jobs II, before Jobs returned to force Apple coders and designers to narrow their focus to a few products that had the promise of a quicker return on investment because of Apple’s dire fiscal difficulties, bad reputation, and the loss of independent developers.
Now Apple is in the opposite state of affairs, having the confidence to perhaps revisit those technologies and proven concepts that it developed in its days of free form skunkworks.
Compare this method with Microsoft holding a media event to announce that there are no security issues to be addressed this month.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,39161124,00.htm
Paul- are you suggesting that Nokia has a patten on that too?
I took Paul’s post to be a quip on Nokia accusing Apple of violating Nokia’s patents with every product it makes. I thought it amusing. 
Its just a poke at Nokia. Please don’t take it seriously, but if you do mistakenly take it seriously, I own the patent on that. Just ask my wife
MIcrosoft says no patch this month. ‘Only’ eight new flaws in IE? That IS a good month. -.-
...it could have been that Apple needed to release the tablet information early because they wanted:...
• Just to mess with us. 
Great article, John. I’m always interested in the way Apple’s inner workings function, and since you’ve been there/done that this was very insightful.
I still think the tablet is a misdirection. Who needs a laptop with no keyboard for $1000? You can’t conveniently watch movies on it because it doesn’t stand up by itself. You can’t type on it because the screen isn’t at a convenient angle relative to the (virtual) keyboard. Jobs thinks that print media is dead and that the Kindle is not worth worrying about… And then they come out with a Kindle killer? I don’t think so. Even if this is supposed to compete with the Kindle, it doesn’t have the battery life, or the easy-to-read electronic ink screen. Why does anyone think this is a great idea? What would you use it for? If this is real it may be Apple’s “Segue”: A great idea, that no one wants.
graxspoo: you raise some interesting points. Perhaps the reason the iTablet is so late is because SJ felt the same way and demanded a solution from his engineers.
Who needs a laptop with no keyboard for $1000?
Obviously as you pointed out, it’s not full featured enough to compete as a laptop. But I think it’ll be more useful than a netbook, and a heck of a lot nicer for multimedia. So I’m still predicting a price point between $600 and $800; somewhere in that curve between iPhones/high end iPods and the lowest price Macbook.
Along the lines of what xmattingly wrote, I think the iTablet will be purposefully have less features than a laptop. Compared to a iPhone, the laptop is cumbersome, and compared to a desktop, it is slow.
I think Apple wants to start selling desktops again (the new 27” iMacs are sweet), but realizes that people are increasingly mobile. That’s why the iTablet will be positioned between the laptop and iPhone in terms of size, price, and ability.
Who needs a laptop with no keyboard for $1000?
A family with a desktop. Apple wants to sell you a desktop and an iTablet, not just one laptop. Thus you have ultimate power in the desktop (and full OS X) and a very good ratio of power/size in the iTablet (with an OS between iPhone OS and Mac OS in terms of features). More money for Apple, more usability for the consumer. Laptops were just a stepping stone.
Earmarks?? The expression is “has all the hallmarks of”, not “has all the earmarks of”, is more generally used to mean “shows signs of being the work of”, and doesn’t make sense in this context anyway.
From the Mac OS X dictionary:
“• a characteristic or identifying feature : this car has all the earmarks of a classic.”
Wondering how much of the rumored 3D interface was adapted from the experimental 3D interface from, I think, the time of System 8.
I downloaded and manipulated the GUI. It was a brilliant visual and manipulative experience. Being experimental, it had no significant apps. It was developed by that free form method whose goal was to discover new things unexpectedly.
John: I’ve been trying to find information on that 3D interface for quite some time. I remember seeing screenshots of this project years ago, when Apple actually had a “labs” section on their site and posted examples of what they were working on. I had no idea that there was any downloadable software, though.
Could you send me whatever you happen to have on this? I’ve always been interested in old Apple technology and experiments, and I’d love to see this again.
- John
jadavis99@gmail.com
has all the earmarks of
Yes, the characteristics of a pork barrel product leak.
The 3-D UI you’re talking about wasn’t the x-plugin, was it? Maybe called something else, but definitely had X in the name, was in the very early days of browsers and the web. Was a plug-in that allowed you to “fly-through” a 3-D sitemap of a website where each page was represented as a “pill” shaped button (much like an aqua submit button.)
It worked great in the browser, but was rather pointless from a functional perspective.
Someone needs to record and leak the phone call. Touche!
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Thanks for the great insight, John. I’ve always been fascinated in the ways that the corporate world mirror (or reflect) the political realm. Assuming you are right - and you are usually right - this is certainly one of those ways.