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Asavin Wattanajantra's Blog

Apple and its obsession with secrecy

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in secrecy, cult, Security, iPhone, Apple on June 29, 2009 at 4:26 pm

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Before I started working as a journalist, all I knew about Apple was that I liked its stuff. They had persuaded me to spend hundreds of pounds on iPods and Macbooks, and the reason why was its equipment was quality - it still is.

Though not much has changed with the Apple 3G S - it’s an object of desire and is one of the best smartphones out there.  Then I became a tech journo, and my opinion has hardened to the company even though they are still coming out with some quality products. Why?

It’s because of its secrecy. It’s got to the point where they will say nothing unless its a press release or the device launch. The Apple Press hotline? Useless. The company might as well write a disclaimer saying “We will never say anything ever, because you smell.”

In terms of my beat my biggest issue with the ‘cult of secrecy’ is in the fact that with computer security - secrecy will probably be a very bad thing and something they won’t be able to  continue to do in the future.

As the Mac becomes more popular and increases its market share, the sooner or later they’re going to have to work with the security vendors as well as the public to make transparent what the actual threats are on a Mac device.

At the moment, nobody knows, because Apple never ever says anything about it.

But generally, the ‘cult of Apple’ works. Just seeing the look of joy when an Apple user gets a device like the new iPhone shows it does. The expectation and the hype is a proven winner.

Thing is, that’s the Apple way. It’s all about the products, and the constant expectation for new ones makes people overlook the fact they are paying more money for products which are generally less powerful.

Shame that they can’t be a little bit more transparent though. The fuss over Steve Jobs and his liver transplant at some point reached parodic levels as Apple people feared saying anything about it. A clear press statement would have probably have made the shareholders a little bit happier anyway.

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