How Steve Jobs Keeps Apple Products A Secret, A Profile By The Times of London

Every year when the iPhone releases, my younger brother wants to know how the whole process at Apple works. I tell him, I have no clue because that’s how Apple likes it. But now I can finally give him an answer, a guide of how Apple functions thanks to Bryan Appleyard of the Times of London.

Mr. Appleyard wrote an article, more like a profile of Steve Jobs without actually ever talking to Steve Jobs. It’s worth noting that Apple had asked the Times of London to not publish the piece a number of times. Whatever the case, it’s a very interesting piece to read. It gives us a glimpse into the mind of Steve Jobs and testimonials from Apple Employees about the culture they work in, a culture so secretive, employees pass through multiple security checkpoints before going to work. Here’s a piece from the article that stands out:

The answer is that, along with computers, iPhones and iPods, secrecy is one of Apple’s signature products. A cult of corporate omerta — the mafia code of silence — is ruthlessly enforced, with employees sacked for leaks and careless talk. Executives feed deliberate misinformation into one part of the company so that any leak can be traced back to its source. Workers on sensitive projects have to pass through many layers of security. Once at their desks or benches, they are monitored by cameras and they must cover up devices with black cloaks and turn on red warning lights when they are uncovered. “The secrecy is beyond fastidious and is in fact insultingly petty and political,” says one employee on the anonymous corporate reporting site Glassdoor.com, “and often is an impediment to actually getting one’s work done.”

As much as we’d like to think Apple is some monster because of how they make their employees do things, it is what makes Apple great. Every year millions of fans, bloggers, tech geeks, businessmen, and companies, wait months, spread rumors about what Apple is releasing before the product even hits store shelves. It’s the culture that jobs has built that creates this kind of anticipation. No other company can hold an event and be covered on every major gadget and tech blog.

As much as I’d like to show this article to my younger brother, I won’t. He has a vision of Apple creating these amazing products in a factory somewhere, and who am I to burst his young mind.

Does it surprise you to find out the process in which secrecy is maintained over at Apple?

(Via CrunchGear)