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How Apple Kept the iPhone Secret
An anonymous reader writes "Bogus prototypes, bullying the press, stifling pillow talk — all to keep iPhone under wraps. Fortune's Peter Lewis goes inside one of the year's biggest tech launches. One of the most astonishing things about the new Apple iPhone, introduced yesterday by Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld trade show, is how Apple managed to keep it a secret for nearly two-and-a-half years of development while working with partners like Cingular, Yahoo and Google."
Given the absurd numbers of rumours which abounded over the past few months, what is this "secret" of which you speak?
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Yes, you are.
You don't even know IF my company exists, not to speak of WHAT we're going to produce.
I'm just gonna scrummage around in my closet for my old turtleneck and then watch out!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Jobs keeps the Apple engineers locked up in the dungeon under Building 7 with little food or water (If someone ask for more, he's sold to Oracle...MS treats their employees too well) until George Lucas shows up and puts his "Window Dressing-No Substance" stamp of approval on the product and recommends Hayden Christenson to be the spokesman for the product *shudder*. Only then does the Marketing Department get wind of the product and start fine-tuning the Reality Distortion Field...er...Job's presentation.
not enough DRM in it.
Duds currently has a phone with no service - he dials 911 every time he wants to order a pizza.
Operator: "911 - what is the nature of your emergency"
Duds: "I'm starving to death; send over a pizza!"
Operator: "You again!!"
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
We don't know, because there's still THREE HUNDRED FIFTY days left in the year! That's the frigging point.
Congress should change the laws so that these papers don't become public. FCC regulations should not be allowed interfere with Apple product release secrecy. I hope Steve has called our new house speaker and put this issue into her "first 100 hours" agenda.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Apparently somebody hides their secrets an order of magnitude better than Apple. Really - what big tech launches do you expect? Vista been launched, all the "new gen" consoles been launched. What do you expect? Teleportation devices?
Duke Nukem Forever (hey, don't blame me for being an optimist!)
You don't even know IF my company exists, not to speak of WHAT we're going to produce.
I can top that with a pronoun change. I don't even know if my company exists, let alone what we're producing.
It would be even funnier to me if it weren't actually true.
If its anything like the ipod, you can expect 1) An elegant but oversimplified interface 2) You will need a case for it or in a few months it will be so badly scratched its difficult to read 3) The first generation of these phones will have serious defects Also, the long term cost for the phone is enormous. To take full advantage of the phone you will need a Cingular plan, plus an unlimited data plan. All in a 2 year contract. So that 600+(24*100)=$3,000. Thats a price most people are not willing or able to pay. The most the average person can hope for from this phone is that other manufactures will take some of its features for there newer phones.
Wow, this crowd sure is getting crotchety.
Cause it looks like an overpriced hunk of junk to me.
By definition, pretty much all current cellphones on the market are overpriced hunks of junk. I mean, what's the RAZR, except for a form factor that would fit into a Nun's vagina?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
This is how they kept it secret:
t /secretiPhone.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/johnnylocus
Havoc Video
Dude, $500 and $600 is $1100, which is way more than $700.