antipopper

The mounting hysteria about Steve Jobs’ MacWorld keynote tomorrow is noted with amusement. Some speculate that Apple’s lawsuit against the ThinkSecret rumour site is just a marketing ploy — an attempt to visibly exploit the cat (news of a sub-US$500 Mac), now that it’s supposedly out of the bag. Perhaps, but I think that’s an over-reading: Apple really are compeletly insane.

Once upon a time, Apple Australia approached us to launch a product.

“What is it?” we asked.

“Um, we can’t tell you.”

“Ooookay, but how are we going to launch this product without, uh, knowing what it is?”

“Well, you’re going to have to guess.”

Riiiiight. “That’s a bit unfair.”

“No really, we don’t know what it is either. Headquarters haven’t told us.”

That’s right — Apple Australia had no firm idea about the third generation iPod (the first one with the touch-sensitive scrollwheel) until the very second it was announced by Steve in the US. Luckily, we had guessed correctly in advance, and thus possibly knew more about the product that our client. So no, I don’t think the lawsuit has very much strategic value at all — Apple really do have a pathological investment in secrecy.