ParisLemon

For the past many years now, this has happened every year. Whispers start to circulate of Apple holding an event and all competitors rush to hold an event first.

They all deny this, of course. “We don’t time our business around other companies” and the like. But it’s bullshit. In aggregate, the trends doesn’t lie.

The rationale, I imagine, is two-fold. First, you can hope to take some of the wind out of Apple’s sails by going first and killing it. But that never seems to happen. So the fallback is option two: “well, at least we’ll have a few days of press before Apple dominates”.

Here’s what I don’t get: instead of focusing on timing, why don’t these companies pour more effort into making their products better so that it doesn’t matter if they announce them before or after Apple? Easier said than done, of course — but isn’t that what it’s all about? If your strategy revolves around announcing something before Apple does because you can’t possibly compete head-to-head, that’s a losing strategy.