Mac fans searching for the latest tidbit about Apple’s highly-expected tablet may have gained an unlikely (and probably inadvertent) ally: the Cupertino, Calif. company’s own lawyers. Thursday Apple’s legal team tried to shut down a public ‘bounty’ for clues to a tablet, but opened a whole new avenue for tablet trivia.
In a cease & desist letter to Valleywag, a silicon valley gossip site, Apple’s law firm made mention of “an unannounced and highly confidential Apple product.” The site, which was offering $10,000 for a photo, $20,000 for a video, $50,000 for pictures of Steve Jobs holding the tablet – even $100,000 to play with the rumored device for an hour, seemed non-plussed by the threats.
“We want answers, dammit! And we’re willing to pay,” Valleywag proclaimed. The site seems undaunted by the letter from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. “Anonymity of both the winners and losers is important to us: We’ll go to spycraft-level lengths to prevent anything being traced back to you,” the Website wrote.
Would Apple go to such an extreme length to stop talk of a product that didn’t exist? This isn’t the first apparent pre-emptive move by the company to plug possible leaks. Just days after the New York Times reported Apple’s tablet would make use of technology from a company it acquired in 2007, the Website of the firm named – Fingerworks – was closed. The reason could have been another report the site included “explicit descriptions of technology that could have evolved into the Apple Tablet’s UI,” as we wrote.
In another instance, an Apple partner appeared to backtrack after a series of reports quoted an executive on an upcoming release of the tablet. France Telecom executive Stephane Richard reportedly told a radio interviewer the tablet would be released “in a couple days.” PR for Mobile carrier Orange, owned by France Telecom, after a day of headlines, attempted to explain away the earlier comments as simply a misunderstanding.
Apple does have an unofficial policy on beneficial leaks, however. “The company has been doing that for years, and it helps preserve Apple’s consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products,” former Apple senior marketing manager John Martellaro told the Mac Observer. Martellaro said leaks about the tablet could be used to float trial balloons (such as pricing), prompt a partner or intimidate rivals.
How did Apple respond to this latest attempt to gain information about its tablet prior to an official release? They had no comment.
[Via Digits and AppleInsider]
