chartier:

[Glenn Fleischman] addressing criticism that Apple gets a “free pass” from press regarding its pre-announcements of the iPhone (six months early) and iPad (three months):

Smartphone makers spent 6 months laughing at Apple and the last 42 months catching up. Likewise, the iPad entered a vacuum in which no tablet had succeeded before except in niche markets.

Apple gets a pass on pre-announcements for one very simple reason: They deliver.

It’s not vaporware when you actually ship a product.