Apple Soft on Rumors, But Still Strong to Preserve Details for October 14th

Nick de Plume, the historical ThinkSecret Editor, noticed that over the past weeks and months, Apple seems to have changed its policies regarding rumors and the websites publishing them. If one remembers that Nick de Plume was sued by Apple for having revealed details about the forthcoming Mac mini, one will understand that he has background to provide such statement. During the summer, the Apple let Engadget to publish accurate Mac-related rumors and details, while Digg founder Kevin Rose posted "spy photo" of the forthcoming iPod nano on his blog...
For having dealt with Apple Legal in the past at several occasions, we can confirm it was "dangerous" to publish photos or details of forthcoming products. So why such changes? If Nick and other think that Apple finally understood it was counter-productive for the company, we think there is a simpler explanation too. For the iPods an iPhones, Apple is not producing those products for a niche market, but for the mass market, so it becomes very important to let information leaked out from Cupertino HQ, and if you can organize them in a way to give the taste and let the buzz being generated without paying 1 cents, it is perfect. In addition, mass market products involve a lot more of third-parties, and a lot more of person to know about forthcoming products, so it becomes more difficult to keep everything secret.
However, when Apple wants to maintain everything secret, it can also make it happen ,as demonstrated by the iPhone introduction. For computer and notebook models, the market share of Mac hardware increasing every months, it becomes quite obvious that we should get details of forthcoming products weeks before their introduction. However, organizing the release of information, does not mean that you will unveil everything, and if we know since weeks that on October 14th, new MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air will be released, we do not know so much more details.