Apple — and Steve Jobs — is well-known for its big announcements, keeping its secrets until the very end, hunting information leaks, and controlling what the media and developers can know (and tell) before new products are being officially launched. Jobs keynotes are notorious for their “one more thing” addendums, where he unveils a new cool little piece of hardware or software, in a tongue-in-cheek way to finally answer heated speculations that spread on Apple-themed forums and blogs.

When media people were invited to come try the iPad before it was released, the one they could play with was literally chained to a table. That’s how Apple is serious about keeping its secrets and maximizing the power of its announcements.

Victor Broïdo has an interesting theory about the whole leak being a fake, set up to boost interest on the new iPhone, after it got put in the shade by the iPad launch.

Sounds far fetched? In The Art of War, written during the 6th century B.C., Sun Tzu wrote a full chapter on the use of spies, and describes one type, “the doomed spies”, as “doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.”

It’s very plausible to me that Apple’s marketing people know about the doomed spies, what do you think?

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