"I'm not passing judgment on which strategy is superior. But here is 6 more paragraphs about how Apple's way is superior"

I am fascinated how much the same people who rail on about how strange it is when people don't understand the "Apple way" don't understand that there are also other ways. Beyond drama, what real advantage is given by releasing a product as soon as it is announced? For Apple, that secrecy and drama is an advantage. It is what brings the fans back, it is what drums up media attention. But that isn't the Microsoft way. That isn't what sells Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't need to win over consumers to sell a piece of hardware, they need to convince OEMs and enterprise to jump on the latest greatest. And those people need a decent lead time. Being nice to devs and manufacturers and business is what makes Windows. Releasing a product as soon as it was announced would be odd and slightly disconcerting. I'll bet a decent amount that if it were to happen, the blog posts wouldn't be effusive praise, from Gruber or Thurott or whomever. And that is okay.

Different strokes.