Why Apple Keeps Secrets
Apple Computers is notorious for keeping its products secret.
More than just a marketing ploy to get its fan base guessing yet excited, this strategy seems to work well for the company because it focused on what exists versus concepts.
If your concept really is that good: why not keep them a secret and put al your effort into getting it to the market instead of sharing it with the rest of the world?
Selling ideas will go nowhere if they don't make you money. Product concepts are press releases to create hype and awareness. They stir up the excitement of the general population.
However, if you don't follow through you suffer some negative consequences. You'll be dubbed the "vaporware" makers.
When Apple wanted to get into retail stores, for example, Jobs had Ron Johson build a fully-functioning, real-size prototype and tore it down at the last minute to rebuild a new one.
The lesson here is - DON'T mislead your customers. If you want to keep them, provide them high quality products that actually work.
At the end of the day, we have to confront the question of why companies like Nokia can sell hundreds of millions of phones and produce many concept products, but it takes Apple — a company that doesn’t do concept pieces — to shatter the market with a single product introduction.
You can create marketing hype with product concepts.
You make money with real products.