they do this to get free exposeure for there new product.. i dont get what is so difficult to understand about it.

ten dollars says that every news station will not only tell the court case but show the 2 new products in some way, explaining their various cool features and no downsides (as they havent been realsed yet)
and the fact that all these positive "review" sounding things come into play all the sudden people who couldnt find their kids the ipod mini and were forced to get their whiney ass kid's a hp ipod will go out and buy their kids this little super mini ipod as a make up gift for no reason cause there are too many ppl with money. i am putting too much into this and i'm gunna get flamed for suttin in here, but parents, don't overspoil your kids, it does no one good.

 

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.