“As the world’s press departed for Barcelona and Mobile World Congress, Apple invited many of them to a presentation on March 9th,” Ewan Spence writes for Forbes. “Widely expected to be for the Apple Watch, not only does it keep the release of information under Apple’s control but it also weakens the PR around devices announced at MWC.”
“Just as Apple announced details on the first iPhone well ahead of its shipping and selling, the Apple Watch has been heavily trailed since it was officially revealed in September,” Spence writes. “Before it took to the production lines, before the parts were sourced in significant quantities, Tim Cook took the watch to the stage so he could explain everything about it, rather than hand the advantage to whoever got the first leak.”
MacDailyNews Take: The number one reason, far and away, why Tim Cook took the Apple Watch to the stage in September was to freeze the market. Mission accomplished. And he did not explain everything about it, not by a long shot.
“Ahead of public availability in April, Apple is expected to reveal the finer details, again taking control of the information and presenting it themselves, rather than have leaks and speculation dampen the story it wants to tell,” Spence writes. “But there is another advantage. Apple can reclaim the news cycle from the top stories at MWC and weaken follow-up coverage of its competitors… MWC finishes on Thursday March 5th. Everyone flies home on the 6th, then takes the weekend off. And the majority of the follow-up coverage that could have been worked on when people hit the office on Monday 9th will be dropped because Tim Cook will be revealing all the details of the Apple Watch.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is Apple’s world and Apple controls the also-rans’ oxygen supply.
Related article:
Apple took 89% of Q4 smartphone profits, leaving Android mired at record-low 11% – February 26, 2015
Everything according to the Apple plan, heh heh heh.
I do so love seeing everyone else caught with their pants down and looking aghast, forlorn and lost. Then painting a disingenuous face on their impending failure. The type of dumbtastic statements Steve Ballmer & Michael Dell were classic and clueless at, and never to live down.
The rest of the Silicon Valley techs have had over 7 years to emulate the Jobsian “Apple University System” of running a growth oriented innovative company, but to date, I see no large company doing the focused work like Apple.
Maybe HP will reinvent itself with the Memristor computing concept they are working on with a huge amount of resources. But HP will have to reinvent how it manages the whole company if it is to continue. Commitment to innovation not only takes money, but very special management to run an operation based on innovation.
It’s going to be interesting to use hindsight of the current age to comprehend why Apple remains so remarkably unique among large businesses.
From my limited point of view, I saw Apple go through the aging process into a decaying Marketing-As-Management company. It then resurrected itself back into an entrepreneurial company and forced itself to stay that way ever onward (or so I expect). That’s a huge lesson to have learned for any company. Most companies don’t survive that level of aging and decay very well. (Hello Kodak! Sony is stuck in Marketing-As-Management mode right now. Microsoft certainly was under Ballmer. We’ll see if they can pull a resurrection themselves).
Clearly the Apple University System is one way to keep the lessons learned alive as the company again ages and is tempted to fall into the same old trap.
Whatever the weaknesses of MWC, it’s nice to see a Congress that is functioning.
Tell me about it! 😉
What makes you think that it is functioning? The majority of the politicians who actively participated in Congress’ *disfunction* over the past six years are still there. There is no “function” and there is no more bipartisanship than at any other point in the past 15 years.
This is just one part of the repeating cycle where American voters are pissed off at the lack of effective government, toss a few incumbents and elect a few new people. If you think that this is a mandate for a particular political platform, then you are sadly misguided. People are just desperate for something to work, and that has been true since 2000.
Try some reading comprehension.
He means Mobile World Congress is functioning, not the governmental body.
It’s called a joke.
“The opportunity for other mobile manufacturers to build on their MWC appearances in the technology press has been weakened.”
Oh dear isn’t that the dream of all mobile manufacturers, to please and strengthen the press legends (in their own minds at least).