Person A to Person B- “I want you to ask me two questions. The first is ‘What is your profession?’ and the second is “What’s the hardest thing about your job?'”
Person B to Person A- “OK. What is your profession?”
Person A to Person B- “I’m a blogging comedian.” And without waiting for the second question continues, “Timing!”
Okay, so maybe the joke doesn’t translate to written text all that well but the truth is, often times, TIMING IS EVERYTHING. And no one seems to do the timing thing better than Apple. CES 2010 was filled with chatter about the iPad even though Apple wasn’t there and the iPad had yet to be announced. And now, just as true Android tablets are poised for release, albeit at high prices, Apple has done it again.
A report from the Wall Street Journal has confirmed what we know about iPad 2, thinner, lighter, and a videoconferencing camera. Perhaps more newsworthy, the WSJ reports it has now gone into production. The WSJ wouldn’t publish such definitive information if they didn’t have a good, reliable source for the news and the only good, reliable source for news on unreleased Apple products is… Apple. So it isn’t a stretch to understand what happened here. Apple went to the WSJ and gave them the information Apple wanted out there. The key information is “the iPad 2 is in production”. But why? Why leak some pretty specific details when they haven’t even scheduled the media gathering to announce it? Larry Dignan over on ZDNet has a pretty good answer. That answer-
Add it up and the Apple iPad production news is perfectly timed. Just as you’re about to ponder a rival tablet, there’s a great reason to hold out a few weeks—the iPad 2. Couple the prices of Android tablets, which are generally too expensive, and the potential of a better iPad on deck and I’m willing to bet more than a few consumers will hold out for Apple’s latest dream device.
For some timing may be the hardest part of a job but Apple makes it look simple.