Arnold Kim quit his job treating kidneys to dissect the secrets of his favorite electronics company, the famously confidential Apple.
Kim launched his independent blog MacRumors.com on Feb. 24, 2000 during his fourth year in medical school. His Apple enthusiasm eventually outweighed his passion for nephrology.
“The medicine stuff, even as much as you enjoy the job, it’s a lot of stress, a lot of responsibility and certainly isn’t what I would choose to do on my free time,” said Kim, now 35. “MacRumors was my fun time, my vacation from work, and eventually [when it made enough money], it eliminated the financial obligation of working.”
As the creator and lead writer of MacRumors.com, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary on Wednesday, Kim takes a scientific approach to analyzing and reporting Apple rumors. Every day, he filters out bogus news tips in search of seemingly truthful gems while sniffing up clues hinting at Apple’s future plans.
With the help of a catchy domain name, a solid track record and clever sleuthing, the soft-spoken blogger now owns an empire built out of whispers, attracting an average of 7 million unique visitors a month — one of the highest-traffic Apple-centric blogs to date.
Also advantageous for MacRumors’ traffic, of course, is the site’s focus on a company that operates on a level of secrecy comparable to the CIA. Apple takes extreme measures to prevent leaks for the purpose of generating maximum buzz and excitement about new products prior to their official unveiling. At Apple headquarters, the company reportedly spreads disinformation to its own employees about product plans to track down leakers. Former employees have said workers in product-testing rooms have had to cover up gadgets they’re working on with black cloaks and flip on a red warning switch when they were unmasked to tell everyone to be extra careful.
Apple has also in some instances taken action against the press, filing cease-and-desist letters demanding removal of leaked information. For example, Apple in 2005 sued Nick Ciarelli, independent owner of the Apple rumor blog Think Secret, alleging violation of trade secret law by encouraging and inducing people to provide product information in breach of agreements. Three years later, Ciarelli reached a settlement with Apple, in which no sources were revealed and Think Secret ceased publishing.
More shielded from Apple’s legal sharks, MacRumors operates as an aggregator of rumors from other websites and message boards rather than posting exclusive leaks from loose-lipped employees. (Though there was a time several years ago when Apple accidentally posted details about a Power Mac G5, which Kim screengrabbed and published. Apple’s legal team phoned Kim, and he complied to a takedown request — but by that time, the news had already spread.)
Because tech gossip is hardly scarce, the credibility of a rumor rests almost entirely on the writer’s reputation or his publication’s prestige. So rather than post every piece of gossip that appears on the web, Kim said he carefully scrutinizes every source, assessing their track records and the plausibility of the rumor in relation to Apple’s past moves and overall history. He also relies on the genius of the crowd, scanning through tips and observations from MacRumors readers in message boards.
“When I look at MacRumors, what I like about it is that it’s a community,” said Leander Kahney, owner of the independent Apple fan blog Cult of Mac and former news editor of Wired.com. “It’s basically a gigantic forum, and Arn’s done a great job at building this great community of people who are really keen to find out what Apple’s up to and devour the rumors.”
MacRumors is one of a plethora of blogs regularly posting gadget-related rumors. Tech rumors often come in the form of pure hearsay, leaked product literature or observational tips from gadget freaks. Reporters are often tipped off by loose-lipped employees who are under non-disclosure agreements, which requires them to anonymize their sources.
Why read rumors? They help the average gadget shopper to avoid buyer’s remorse — when credible, rumors help you know when, and when not, to buy a product. If an upgrade for a gadget is likely due out in a few weeks, you probably don’t want to buy the current version today.
Rumors also help analysts and journalists keep their fingers on the pulse of a company, to anticipate its future moves and direction.
“We take rumors seriously,” Kim said. “In med school, medicine requires a very scientific approach that’s evidence-based. You want to have studies and prove treatments before you invest tons of money into it…. Similarly, with MacRumors stuff, you have to prove to me you’re a reliable source. I’d like to think that people appreciate that sort of approach.”
Other than relying on message boards and tips, Kim juggles a few tricks of the trade to sleuth for Apple news nuggets. One of Kim’s favorite recent scoops was related to the Apple tablet’s name. Prior to the iPad’s announcement, Kim discovered evidence that “iSlate” was a potential candidate for the tablet’s name: Apple had purchased the domain name iSlate.com, according to its registrant history. Later, a digital trail revealed Apple had also filed for the iSlate trademark through the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Then Kim received a tip that iPad would be the name of Apple’s tablet. He found evidence that Apple had filed for the iPad trademark in Europe, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia.
Still, Kim crossed his fingers that iSlate would be the name, based on his personal preference. But Apple went with iPad. (That’s too bad, too, because after the iSlate rumor spread, Dell and Microsoft branded their tablets “slates.”)
Nonetheless, the process of tracking trademark filings and domain registrations revealed some fascinating insights into how Apple shrouds its products with secrecy. Trademark histories, for instance, reveal that Apple sets up dummy corporations to avoid giving away its plans. For the iPad, Apple employed Corporate Trust, an agency that assists corporations in expediting legal services and other requests, to create a client called “Slate Computing,” a name Apple used to stealthily file for the tablet’s trademarks.
The giveaway clue that Slate Computing was Apple? The trademark filing was signed by Regina Porter, Apple’s senior trademark specialist.
Even though Apple has grown in popularity and works with multiple partners, including publishers, carriers and software developers, the company is still masterful at keeping secrets, Kim said. Apple traditionally prevents partners from obtaining early knowledge of its products, he explained. For example, Apple inked its deal with AT&T to carry the iPhone without showing the device to the telecom company.
“They’ve gotten a lot tighter in terms of their hardware,” Kim said. “They insulate their development teams a lot better, and they still shield their partners from the hardware.”
Kim, who lives in Virginia with his wife and two children, plans to launch a redesign of MacRumors soon to celebrate the site’s 10th anniversary. An anonymous tipster provided Wired.com with a leaked mockup of the redesign (below).
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Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
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