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gekko · 05-12-2005, 11:05 AM

How hard is it to keep a secret? Very hard.

Consoles aren't just made and released. You have the entire team behind the development of the console. You have the execs at Microsoft who approve of the new products. You have the lawyers that file for all the patents and trademarks. You have the low-end guys filing the paperwork and scheduling appointments. You have the PR reps. You have the in-house product testers. You have the market research groups. You have the graphic designers making sure the press pictures of the console are pretty. You have the guy running the Xerox machine making copies. You have all the development houses, all the programmers, all the artists, all the designers, all their little possies.

It's hard to keep a secret. When you watch this tonight, you are far from the first person to see the new Xbox. For many, it's old news. Same thing with movies, stand in line for Star Wars 3, be the first to see it, except that many before you have already done so.

But more likely, Microsoft is doing this on their own. Any Apple fans know that Apple is the king of leaks. It's a way of generating hype. They uploaded the G5 pictures and links for a minute, knowing how many people would take screen shots of it. The next day, everyone watched the keynote, knowing the G5 would be unveiled. They reveal Tiger, a couple hours later the pre-release build they are using at the show is on the net. They reveal Keynote, it's on the net in hours. I've seen entire diagrams of new cases and chipsets they ended up revealing months later.

But everyone knows, Apple does it themselves, and they joke about it in the keynotes. But it works. Apple has 5% market share, but has a cult following and an insanely high customer satisfaction rate. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony receives bitches and complaints all day.

05-12-2005, 11:05 AM	#5
gekko Knight gekko is offline Now Playing: Posts: 3,890	Re: Poor Microshaft How hard is it to keep a secret? Very hard. Consoles aren't just made and released. You have the entire team behind the development of the console. You have the execs at Microsoft who approve of the new products. You have the lawyers that file for all the patents and trademarks. You have the low-end guys filing the paperwork and scheduling appointments. You have the PR reps. You have the in-house product testers. You have the market research groups. You have the graphic designers making sure the press pictures of the console are pretty. You have the guy running the Xerox machine making copies. You have all the development houses, all the programmers, all the artists, all the designers, all their little possies. It's hard to keep a secret. When you watch this tonight, you are far from the first person to see the new Xbox. For many, it's old news. Same thing with movies, stand in line for Star Wars 3, be the first to see it, except that many before you have already done so. But more likely, Microsoft is doing this on their own. Any Apple fans know that Apple is the king of leaks. It's a way of generating hype. They uploaded the G5 pictures and links for a minute, knowing how many people would take screen shots of it. The next day, everyone watched the keynote, knowing the G5 would be unveiled. They reveal Tiger, a couple hours later the pre-release build they are using at the show is on the net. They reveal Keynote, it's on the net in hours. I've seen entire diagrams of new cases and chipsets they ended up revealing months later. But everyone knows, Apple does it themselves, and they joke about it in the keynotes. But it works. Apple has 5% market share, but has a cult following and an insanely high customer satisfaction rate. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony receives bitches and complaints all day.