

Ask HN: Do the big tech companies know their competitors' plans? - lunchbox

It seems unlikely to me that a major tech company could manage to keep development of its new products secret from its competitors, for the following reasons:<p>- The stakes are extremely high; knowing your competitor's plans early can make or break a business.<p>- The major tech companies are constantly hiring employees away from each other, resulting in plenty of employees who know about the competitor's most recent plans.<p>This kind of activity may be illegal, but there's no shortage of examples of corporations getting away with bending or surreptitiously breaking the rules.<p>So: Does Steve Jobs know Google's product roadmap? Does Eric Schmidt know what the next iPhone will look like? (And so on.)
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scrrr
Here in Germany there's a rumor that when Mercedes launches a new car-model,
the next day it's in the parking lot of BMW where the engineers are taking it
apart completely to see what is new at Mercedes.

In fact, when they make a new car, they send one to BMW, Audi, Volkswagen etc.
and expect them to do the same in return. As if saying: "You're going to do it
anyway, so here, have one."

I assume something similar might be going on at big tech companies such as
Sony or Microsoft. But I do not think they know what their competitors are
planning for next year other than observing what trends are currently hot and
what new technologies are becoming available.

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iuguy
Don't forget that Apple and Google work together, as do Apple and Microsoft.
So they will know some of each others' roadmaps, quite legitimately.

