Microsoft and Samsung Try Out Apple’s Secret Sauce ⇥ bits.blogs.nytimes.com

Brian X. Chen for The New York Times:

Microsoft sent out invitations to the event on Thursday without saying a word of what it was about. In the past, it has been transparent with the topic of the event, like updates on the Windows Phone 7 platform or news about Windows 8. At the very least, they’d brief reporters on background just so they’d know what to expect, or usually there would be some loud-mouth engineers eager to spill what they’ve worked on. But this time, Microsoft’s employees and press relations team stayed mum. […]

“Dear Microsoft, you can’t pull this last minute presser in LA with zero context,” complained Peter Ha, the managing editor of TechCrunch, on Twitter. “$$$$$ for us. Blowback could be severe if dumb.”

With the benefits of secrecy come the falls. Apple is no stranger to rumours that don’t pan out, for example, and Peter Ha’s tweet summarizes the difference between Apple and Microsoft’s strategies. Apple has four product events every year, maximum: March, WWDC in June, October, and an optional January one. Microsoft has about double that.