2020_ 4 Part I Cloze Once upon a time, companies simply made new products and sold them. In due 1 , they made them, advertised them to buyers and then sold them. Now, 2 frequently comes before sale, the production and sometimes 3 the design of the item, with what modern marketers like to call a “pre-announcement.” The 4 of such early declarations of intent can spread far 5 the marketing department. Spoil the pre-launch hype and you will 6 profitability, unsettle sales and - if the product doesn’t 7 expectations - undermine the company’s credibility. Get it right and you may 8 a lead in a new product area and lay the 9 for future success. Aggressive pre-announcement can get you into 10 difficulty, as Microsoft discovered during the antitrust debate of the 1990s, when district judge Stanley Sporkin denounced the company 11 allegedly marketing forthcoming software just to 12 rival’s product cycles. He said 13 so-called “vaporware” was “a practice that is deceitful on its face and everybody in the business community knows it.” But even publicizing a firm product launch has its 14 . Apple stole the mantle of tactical pre-announcement from Microsoft at about the time Mr Jobs 15 the arrival of the first iPhone in 2007. 16 Walter Isaacson writes in his bibliography of the late Apple chief executive: “Jobs found ways to ignite blasts of publicity that were so powerful the frenzy would 17 itself, like a chain reaction.” Last week, 18 , the blast backfired as Apple disappointed investors by revealing lower than expected quarterly sales of iPhones. Apple says enthusiasts for the 19 are so excited by gossip about the new version, due in a few months’ time, that some are 20 buying the current model.