NewsForge: Timing Release Schedules to Maximize Publicity

"Two or three times each year, Macintosh enthusiasts go nuts over Apple's new product launches, and the company rides a wave of publicity from the resulting media attention. Open source projects would do well to study how Apple orchestrates this, because publicity is the key to attracting new users--and new users are the lifeblood of the development model.

"Obviously Apple has good PR people, for which there is no substitute. Whenever Apple launches a product, CEO Steve Jobs delivers a focused speech about what makes the new gizmos desirable and different. It is simple for buyers to understand and easy for journalists to write up. By contrast, few open source projects put much work into public relations at all..."

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• Editor's Note: News at 11(Dec 03, 2004)
• NewsForge: How To Be a Free Software Zealot(Oct 23, 2004)