There's a lot to suss out about Apple's non-announcement announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, but this bit from John Gruber's one-on-one (plus two) with Phil Schiller stands out:
But this, I say, waving around at the room, this feels a little odd. I’m getting the presentation from an Apple announcement event without the event. I’ve already been told that I’ll be going home with an early developer preview release of Mountain Lion. I’ve never been at a meeting like this, and I’ve never heard of Apple seeding writers with an as-yet-unannounced major update to an operating system. Apple is not exactly known for sharing details of as-yet-unannounced products, even if only just one week in advance. Why not hold an event to announce Mountain Lion — or make the announcement on apple.com before talking to us?
That’s when Schiller tells me they’re doing some things differently now.
I wonder immediately about that “now”. I don’t press, because I find the question that immediately sprang to mind uncomfortable.
That's a big deal and you can read Schiller's comment and think that the glass is half empty, or half full.
Think about it, though, Apple's leadership team -- post Steve Jobs -- has already made it clear that they're a bit different:
- Tim Cook has established that Apple will match charitable contributions from any Apple employee, including retail store employees, up to $10,000. That's already led to millions of dollars for non-profit organizations.
- Apple, under Tim Cook's leadership, joined the Fair Labor Association. No other technology company has done this.
- Phil Schiller is meeting with journalists in an intimate setting, one-on-one, to provide product briefings.