[linguae]

It's a shame that Apple doesn't have an industrial research lab; it certainly has the funding to create a lab that would rival Microsoft Research or perhaps even legendary labs like Xerox PARC and Bell Labs. Apple used to have a lab: during the "interregnum" years of 1985 to 1997, Apple had a fantastic research group called the Advanced Technology Group, led by the late Larry Tesler. In some ways this group was a sort of spiritual successor to Xerox PARC; Larry Tesler was ex-Xerox, and the legendary Alan Kay (of Smalltalk fame) and Don Norman (who wasn't from Xerox PARC but who is a legend in usability) were involved in this group. This group worked on many interesting and important technologies, such as Quicktime, AppleScript, OpenDoc, HyperCard, speech recognition, and more. Even though the Dylan project did not come from the Advanced Technology Group, it is another example of interesting work that came out of Apple during this time period. Even though commercially Apple struggled during the latter half of the interregnum, Apple created some amazing technologies during this time period.

Of course, the Sculley/Spindler/Amelio Apple seemed to be far more open regarding research than the Jobs- and Cook-era Apple. Jobs closed down the labs in 1997 and help institute Apple's famous culture of secrecy that persists today.

[odyssey7]

Has the culture of secrecy benefited them at all since the launch of the iPhone?

[sjg007]

I think the answer to that question is yes.