Answering a question about whether or not Apple will refund users who already bought an iPhone 4 case, Jobs candidly explained what should be obvious: Apple’s secrecy about new products is all about not tipping people off that they should wait for a new product before they buy.
“We’re not going to refund the 3rd party cases — it’s a very small number because we didn’t sell as many cases because we didn’t share the phone design with case manufacturers in advance of launch. But now we kind of wish there were more cases out there!” Jobs laughs.
“It’s really simple why: when people find out about your new product, they stop buying your old products. Sometimes websites buy stolen prototypes and put ‘em on the web, and we don’t care for that. But if we give the designs to case makers, they have a history of putting them up on the web as well.”
“The case vendors haven’t had a history of helping us through that. It’s a conundrum,” admits Jobs. ” We’ll consider things on a case by case basis.” Groan.
