Well, the big issue is that Apple depends on hype, and I'm not gonna deny that. What's also the case is that nearly every manufacturer attempts to copy Apple at one point in time or another (Remember all the iMac ripoffs?). Also, Mac sales drop the month proceeding the conventions they release products. It would be even worse if people knew new products were coming out for sure, and Apple would get stuck with a huge supply they would have to sell at a loss. Hell, there's people out there that watch the production figures of the companies that supply Apple to try to figure out what the new products are gonna be.

Apple is a company who's main goal is to make money, plain and simple. I just happen to like how their products work. I also worked for one of Apple's pet resellers, so I've seen _some_ of the kind of inside transactions that take place. I was also working at that store when we drew some of Apple's ire when we discovered a manufacturing error with one of their products (Not something they made themselves, but a particular component they bought and installed on some specific models) and were very open about it to our customer's and Apple... they didn't like that . So yeah, Apple can be zealous in protecting it's intellectual property, but when they're such a (comparatively) small company, and you have many people who would like to see you out of business, you gotta protect what you have.