Tech giant unable to keep its secrets

It seems that just like Siri's hint, Apple's fanatics are definitely the kids who sneaked downstairs to open presents early, and I think, unsurprisingly, I am one of them.

Three months ago, I was in San Francisco to take part in Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, but this was the first time I attended the Fall 2015 product launch event.

Rumors about the Cupertino tech giant's new hardware have gone viral on the Internet since the ending of the WWDC, and the impressive part for me is most of the Internet speculation was confirmed at the event.

By comparison with the long queues lined up in front of the WWDC venue the night before, this gig attracted an audience nearly 10 times greater, but no one was camping outside the building for the opening bell. The reason was simple, Apple streamed the entire conference live.

Three new products－the iPhone 6s & iPhone 6s Plus, the iPad Pro and an overhauled Apple TV－were unveiled at the event. I was monitoring the tweets both on Twitter, Sina Weibo and WeChat and found out that there were a plenty of Apple fans watching the event online, even in China, where the local time was midnight.

I conducted an online interview with five Apple fans, and I was inspired by their enthusiasm for Apple. A foreigner living in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu province, even shared with me a video he shot in front of a building, which was still under construction. He believes that it will be the city's first ever Apple store.

"I visited the location each weekend and always saw a large number of foreigners," he said, joking that they were "undercover" Apple employees.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said last year that the company plans to expand its retail presence in China from 15 stores to 40 in two years.

The secret is that there are no secrets. Analysts argue that there has never been a series of Apple products that have leaked this much prior to an event, while for me, Apple is one of the masters who handle skillfully marketing arts.