I've worked at several companies that are more than twice the size of apple. I never knew very much of what was going on. It's not so much that the companies

I've worked at several companies that are more than twice the size of apple. I never knew very much of what was going on. It's not so much that the companies were secretive, but that there was no way I was going to know everything happening in my own division (which had thousands of employees), let alone everything in a dozen other divisions. It would have been easy for someone to keep one product a secret from most of us because most of us wouldn't have even known to ask. I think many big companies could keep secrets like apple does (look at mergers and acquisitions which are often kept quiet). Most of them don't keep new products secret, though, because they value the constant dribble of press releases rather than the big bang surprises.