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Apple's Public Relations Department Opening Up Under Tim Cook

Tuesday February 5, 2013 12:28 pm PST by Jordan Golson

For years, Apple Public Relations has issued press releases for major product announcements, handed out exclusives and loaner units to a few select reporters and columnists, and occasionally signed off on an interview with one of the senior executives when it suited their marketing message. That strategy gave the company millions of dollars in free marketing with news outlets writing about every bit of information they can find.

These days, according to the Wall Street Journal, Apple's public relations department is a little more proactive. Last week, Apple issued a press release to announce iOS 6.1, a comparatively minor software release.

At the same time, Apple communications staff have recently sent reporters more favorable third-party reports about the company, including a study predicting that by 2014, Apple will be as accepted in the enterprise as Microsoft is today. Apple, and indeed virtually all its competitors, send reporters favorable studies from time to time. But the five reports Apple has sent since the start of the year, mostly related to mobile market share, represent more than recent months.

The Journal says the PR efforts "represent a recognition that competition is heating up", according to a WSJ source, with a caveat that it wasn't a big shift in protocol.

Of course, even when Apple PR is more forthcoming, it can still rely on the press to cover every move it makes.

Tag: Tim Cook

Top Rated Comments

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AngerDanger

88 months ago

I don't know.. this guy Cook.. this guy blows.. Double downing on secrecy.. oh wow.. All the moves he makes, looks very very shaky and doubtful..

I feel the same way about your punctuation.

Rating: 24 Votes

Porco

88 months ago

"a study predicting that by 2014, Apple will be as accepted in the enterprise as Microsoft is today."

Ooh, I love fantasy novels!

Rating: 17 Votes

ericinboston

88 months ago

"...including a study predicting that by 2014, Apple will be as accepted in the enterprise as Microsoft is today."

So let me get this straight...within 10 months:

1)Apple software (what software?) will be as accepted as MS SQL Server or MS Office or MS Windows.

2)Apple Macs will be as accepted as Windows-based machines in the corporate world (we've been hearing similar stories for 25+ years). Even though there are no business Support contracts by Apple...you know...those corporate contracts about supporting hardware, upgrades, pricing, implementation teams, development teams, escalation/dedicated teams, etc. And where are the hundreds of thousands of Mac/Apple IT people to even do the work at Company X?

3)Apple iPads will be as accepted as MS tablets (you know, the one MS just released a few months ago which has no traction). This would be a true statement, but it's sure not saying much! Why not say that Apple will be as popular as nuns handing out cigarettes to children at bus stops?

Apple has a very, VERY long road to any kind of corporate acceptance. The very basics (regardless of how good a product(s) you think Apple has) are entirely missing from Apple: technical support, roadmapping, open-ness, pricing. Not to mention the fact that Apple has a very my-way-or-the-highway approach.

Apple is consumer-focused...plain and simple. Which is fine. Comparing phones and MP3 players to core hardware/software that RUNS businesses is abdsurd.

Rating: 8 Votes

deconstruct60

88 months ago

...The fact Apple needs an entire department to do what one one of many areas Jobs handled solo is telling indeed. Sad day.

LOL. Jobs didn't do all PR by himself. What is sad is folks perpetrating that fraud.

Rating: 6 Votes

Renzatic

88 months ago

Macs far outsold Windows just 20 years ago. That's about the time Microsoft screwed Apple in the courtroom to get their Mac GUI because of a poorly written paragraph in the Office for Mac contract. The contract failed to clearly limit the use of the Mac GUI to Office, which at the time was the biggest selling software package on the Mac and by far the biggest seller for Microsoft. Microsoft used that court win to create Windows.

Read up on your tech history again. That contract loophole was only a small part of a much greater whole that ended up costing Apple the rights to the GUI.

The major part was that Apple didn't invent the GUI to begin with, and couldn't claim ownership of something someone else had already done beforehand.

Rating: 3 Votes

Northgrove

88 months ago

I don't know.. this guy Cook.. this guy blows.. Double downing on secrecy.. oh wow.. All the moves he makes, looks very very shaky and doubtful..

What.

Making press releases when you decide to make them doesn't impact secrecy in any way. They make the announcements when the products have been released! The difference is that they may just be more willing to make them now. I can't see how that in any way is a bad thing.

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Exclamation point on the end of the Jobs Era. The fact Apple needs an entire department to do what one one of many areas Jobs handled solo is telling indeed. Sad day.

Jobs wrote all press releases?

Rating: 3 Votes

JHankwitz

88 months ago

"

2)Apple Macs will be as accepted as Windows-based machines in the corporate world (we've been hearing similar stories for 25+ years).

Rating: 2 Votes