News that Apple's chief executive officer had a liver transplant two months ago mirrors the U.S. company's culture of secrecy, company analysts said.
At Apple Inc., "they make everyone super, super paranoid about security," former employee Mark Hamblin told The New York Times Tuesday.
In some meetings, executives have given out incorrect information in order to help them track leaks to the press, the Times said.
Some employees developing products work in areas requiring multiple security checks. Video cameras watch them at work. On some projects, employees are required to cover their work with black cloaks and turn on a red warning light when the cloaks are removed.
"They don't communicate. It's a total black box," said company analyst Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray.
Apple uses its secrecy "to keep the surprise aspect to product launches, which can have a lot of power," said Silicon Valley marketer Regis McKenna.
Lack of disclosure of Jobs' health issues may have violated the law, but he was already on an extended leave and had transferred responsibilities to Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook before the operation.
Apple has said Jobs would return to work at the end of the month.
No comments:
Post a Comment