3 ms·

I don't know whether this is a purposeful leak or not but there are several reasons Apple may want to. Besides the ones others have mentioned a few other are: 1

I don't know whether this is a purposeful leak or not but there are several reasons Apple may want to. Besides the ones others have mentioned a few other are: 1) Part of being an Apple fan is the steady stream of rumors that keep people excited. Even if they don't pan out. So keeping the fan base interested. 2) Apple, unlike its competitors does not reveal its research unless it has a product to sell. This often leads to accusations of being less innovative than others. This helps maintajn the impression that they are an innovative company the way releasing proof of concepts or innovative, yet unsuccessful, products work for its competitors. 3) This may lead competitors into wild goose chase a especially if Apple has determined that it's a technology that isn't going anywhere 4) It may prod suppliers into investing in researching such technologies. If they know that Apple is interested in a technology, it gives every screen manufacturer a huge incentive to put a lot of money into research that may lead to a product that Apple could just buy. (To be fair, it wiuld probably be easier to just tell the suppliers that they are interested in this).

simonh 9y ago
I don't buy any of that. The population of Apple customers that hang on leaks like this is relatively tiny and if they're that much of a fan they're hooked anyway. Minor leaks are going to happen whatever Apple does, so manufacturing them just isn't worthwhile. Then there's the problem that it's impossible to control the narrative on off the record leaks, and once you leak a supposedly 'desirable' amount of information on a secret project, that's like blood in the water to the media sharks that will then savage the subject to death trying to get 'undesirable' amounts of information on it. The risks from that IMHO would massively outweigh the minuscule and highly arguable benefits from a minor leak. Small leaks have a tendency to turn into big leaks and Apple definitely doesn't want that to happen.

simonh 9y ago

I don't buy any of that. The population of Apple customers that hang on leaks like this is relatively tiny and if they're that much of a fan they're hooked anyway. Minor leaks are going to happen whatever Apple does, so manufacturing them just isn't worthwhile. Then there's the problem that it's impossible to control the narrative on off the record leaks, and once you leak a supposedly 'desirable' amount of information on a secret project, that's like blood in the water to the media sharks that will then savage the subject to death trying to get 'undesirable' amounts of information on it. The risks from that IMHO would massively outweigh the minuscule and highly arguable benefits from a minor leak. Small leaks have a tendency to turn into big leaks and Apple definitely doesn't want that to happen.