Steve Jobs' obsession with secrecy and the "big-bang"

Some interesting thoughts.

The iPhone was far from complete when it was released. What they did release was very polished. They are still iterating somewhat when they tacked on 3G, the API, etc. The iPhone was also launching into a mature market, as was the iPod. I think many of us knew our smartphones sucked and had laundry lists of things that sucked about them. Apple's real gamble was that people would spend large amounts of money on their phone. They still gambled, but I think the need to make huge pivots and change everything was less likely.

Also, I think Apple has enough money where they can afford to have an unsuccessful product, unlike startups. AppleTV hasn't taken off, and I think Apple will eventually launch a major dud, and will have spent a lot of money on it, but they can afford it.

Finally, Apple seems be really good at predicting what people will want. This is rare.

This certainly highlights the difference between a major corporation and most start-ups.

When you can fund masses of inventory, have access to user-tests and product trials, and already have a profile that can be leveraged through a big-bang, Jobs and Apple have clearly demonstrated the success of that strategy.

When you don't already have a lazy $30M, on top of a customer base and media world who know and love you, then you gotta release-early, release often. Make sure you're building something that will sell, and if that means test sites, low sales, and constant iteration then look around on this site to find the demonstrated success of that strategy.

Not in entire agreement with this. This goes against the very grain of the lean startup methodologies and the idea of being out of "stealth mode" as it were.

I think both Apple, and Google have the luxury of a huge in-house user test base which other companies do not, which means they cannot afford to create something in-house and launch it and expect it to be an instant market fit.

Just my 2 cents.

The principle of setting expectations low or not setting them at all (officially) can apply to startups as well as large corporations. Startups that fail often try to please too many people (web developer opens biz to build more websites and applications only to realize that different markets need different expertise, only to let people down, etc.).