John Martellaro presents an eye-opening story of how Apple uses the media as it sees fit to disseminate information about a product it is launching. Reasons to do so include changing the behavior of a partner, seeing if a price point will work, panic a competitor and/or fill seats at Apple events.

Interestingly I wrote just a few days ago that I would happily pay $999 for an Apple tablet – have I just unwittingly confirmed Apple picked a good price to put on the launch of this product?

One wonders how many other companies are using similar tactics for similar reasons.