I’ll be the first to admit I have been intrigued with the fodder coming out of the rumor mill on the upcoming Keynote, but sometimes in our need to know, we don’t always think about the costs of spoiling the surprise.
Apple has three obvious reasons for objecting to rumor leaking. Apple loses control over customer’s timing of purchase, and may lose sales as people wait for the rumored product. Apple also loses lead time on competitive reactions to groundbreaking products. But, perhaps closest to the heart of the CEO and executives is the potential harm to the company’s market valuation.
Stock price is a factor of external perceptions of the future value of a company. What does this have to do with rumors? Apple’s stock is riding an iPod high at the moment, and unfortunately analysts are sucking down rumors (which were largely ignored in the past) as indicators. With Apple at a high, any failure to meet expectations, even erroneous ones, will likely punish the stock price.
So Apple and its investors could lose money because Apple didn’t do something it never said it would? You bet. I’m not making a statement against free speech or Mac rumor sites. But, it is worth noting that these exciting rumors can come at a cost.
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