[jsprinkles]

My comment was a generality. For example, if Apple (or any company) tomorrow published:

    Q1 2013 (tentative)    iOS 6.1
    Q2 2013 (tentative)    Mac Pro update
    Q3 2013 (tentative)    iOS 6.2

Does that give competitors a leg up on them, genuinely? What does Apple gain from being secretive? Is it just status quo thought at this point that is keeping companies thinking secretively? I understand new products being a surprise, that's kind of cool, but does it hurt Apple to be a bit more open? Is there some competitive advantage I'm missing?

Say you're Dell. You see Apple is working on a Mac Pro update. Does that change your priorities at all, strategically? Does it matter to you? Now Apple working on a game-changer, that I understand, but a simple update? Why keep that secret? What do competitors gain from knowing every little detail of what Apple is up to?

I'm trying to figure out Steve's reasoning, since I'm not terribly versed in business, and this generally seems to be a business decision. It's especially epidemic in IT, where all of us are writing cool software, but nondisclosure prevents us from sharing with competitors except in special circumstances. So instead of advancing the state of the art, we're all reinventing the wheel because our prior wheel inventions are nondisclosured to the prior company.

I just don't get secrecy.

[willfulwizard]

Giving out that sort of information would change some amount of people from just buying now to waiting for the new product. That's nice from a customer standpoint but bad for Apple.

Consider:

1) Less outdated inventory moved.

2) More problems keeping up with new product demand, which Apple already can't do.

3) More customers think about the question of buy now or wait when making a purchase. This doesn't sound like a lot, but Apple strives for the simplest possible buying experience.

[dasil003]

Don't forget:

4) The freedom to release or not release anything at any time.

[jsprinkles]

Good points. I hadn't thought about it from a supply chain perspective or that of cannibalizing sales. That's definitely a consideration.

[MartinCron]

A big part of the secrecy is the way that they can surprise and delight people by blowing their minds and then making the product available almost immediately. It's theatre as much as anything.

In this case I definitely agree with you. Professionals should have some sort of roadmap. Pro software investments can be huge, and I wouldn't want to invest in pro software for a platform that may no longer support pro hardware.

[vilya]

Possibly they're more worried about potential bad press if they fail to meet whatever tentative deadlines they announce?