Do you think leaks happen only for the hype or it is just sloppiness?

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Ilia Temelkov
Ilia Temelkov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 9mo ago

Some of the most popular stories around here are about the constant flow of leaks about future smartphones. Even before the infamous iPhone 4 prototype fell into the hands of bloggers who showed it to the world, the tech community always strived to get the latest scoop first. The result is that today the scoops are very reliable and usually we know the vast majority of the details about all new devices long before the flashy keynote premieres.


This gives us a lot to talk about but it may be the result of well-calculated strategies to build hype around unannounced products. It also robs us of the surprises during the flashy keynotes most companies aim to have, so the reason for the leaks may be genuine sloppiness. 


Of course, one could argue that the journey is more important than the destination. So, do you like the whole rumor mill experience, where we get to speculate based on a miniscule glimpse of the future? Or do you think this is a marketing tool to build hype around products? Do the rumors ruin your premiere experiences? Would you use a spoiler-free version of the internet, with no gadget rumors?

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Brewski
Brewski
Arena Master
• 9mo ago

Neither. It's journalists getting too snoopy. It used to be when there would was a rumor of a new phone, everything was up for debate, nothing finalized until the company officially released an announcement. Some companies were worse about leaks, maybe due to sloppiness. Apple always locked everything down so you couldn't confirm a single thing until release date. But who cares? Why should they hide, they are just trying to run a business. Now everything is known about a new phone before the official keynote simply because you guys can't just write news stories, now you have to conjecture and speculate. Is that news? No.


Now leakers/journalists will dig through supplier orders, patents filed, review internal code, any info they can glean to get more clicks.


Phone manufacturers will buy an ad to promote their newest product. They are not releasing anything for the purpose of hype. You guys invented that false demand.

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TBomb
TBomb
Arena Master
• 9mo ago
↵Brewski said:

Neither. It's journalists getting too snoopy. It used to be when there would was a rumor of a new phone, everything was up for debate, nothing finalized until the company officially released an announcement. Some companies were worse about leaks, maybe due to sloppiness. Apple always locked everything down so you couldn't confirm a single thing until release date. But who cares? Why should they hide, they are just trying to run a business. Now everything is known about a new phone before the official keynote simply because you guys can't just write news stories, now you have to conjecture and speculate. Is that news? No.


Now leakers/journalists will dig through supplier orders, patents filed, review internal code, any info they can glean to get more clicks.


Phone manufacturers will buy an ad to promote their newest product. They are not releasing anything for the purpose of hype. You guys invented that false demand.

I thought I could quote just a sentence, but can't figure it out...

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Chuck007
Chuck007
Arena Master
• 9mo ago

Judging of the timing of said leaks, I think most of them are intentional. Gives "loyal customers" the illusion their preferred brand is leading the market when it's anything but.

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TuGa121
TuGa121
Arena Master
• 9mo ago
Well ill tell you one thing for the last 3 years the hype for samsung was big then they release and nothing but disappointment.
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Dude_on_the_beach
Dude_on_the_beach
Arena Apprentice
• 9mo ago

supply chain is huge gossip network.

also, those that have manufacturing done by other companies (apple and google) cant control the tongue of employees at foxconn.


anyway, it is ridiculous how we see everything about pixel and galaxy like 3-4 months before they are announced.

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stferrari
stferrari
Arena Apprentice
• 9mo ago

Probobly a hybrid of both.

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strbckboy
strbckboy
Arena Apprentice
• 9mo ago

As someone who has worked with several OEMs in the smartphone space, most leaks are not intentional. They take these things quite seriously and people often lose their jobs over things.


This is not to say that it never happens. It's just not usually the major players in the industry. Some smaller companies are notorious for doing. *cough cough*...NOTHING.

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Ilia Temelkov
Ilia Temelkov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 9mo ago
↵strbckboy said:

As someone who has worked with several OEMs in the smartphone space, most leaks are not intentional. They take these things quite seriously and people often lose their jobs over things.


This is not to say that it never happens. It's just not usually the major players in the industry. Some smaller companies are notorious for doing. *cough cough*...NOTHING.

Ah, you know how in The Crown the queen was always boasting how her job is to do precisely nothing. So, I could imagine that nothing is an actual strategy, sometimes.


In any case, this aligns with my general feeling that usually leaks are part of the supply chain chaos, rogue employees or genuine sloppiness. However, I’ve never seen or heard anyone losing their job or being punished somehow for leaking information. Is this something that really happens a lot in the industry?

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ivan.k
ivan.k
Phonearena team
• 9mo ago
↵TBomb said:

I thought I could quote just a sentence, but can't figure it out...

Nope, quotation always gets the whole post you want to quote. No matter if you select just one sentence/word/phrase.

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