Volkswagen Lover: Apple PR’s control stemmed to who could discuss the iPhone after 2007 unveiling

Former Apple iPhone marketing executive Bob Borchers

One of the most critical aspects of Apple is its public relations team— the team that puts out press releases, deals with the press, runs keynote presentations, Apple events, and more. Adam Lashinsky's upcoming book "Inside Apple" provides detail on Apple's public relations team by noting its secrecy, thoroughness, and tactics with the upper echelon of the technology-reporting world. According to the book, Apple's public relations department is divided up into product categories, with certain staff assigned to specific Apple products and services.

The PR team obviously sets questions about unreleased products, personal information about Apple's leadership team, and details about Apple's future events, as noted by Inside Apple. Perhaps the best demonstration of Apple PR's control is how communication about the iPhone following its 2007 unveiling was handled. According to the book, the PR department allowed only five Apple employees to discuss the breakthrough product following the announcement.

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This list was comprised of then Apple CEO Steve Jobs, then Apple COO Tim Cook, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, iPhone marketing chief Greg Jozwiak, and former Apple marketing executive Bob Borchers.

Missing from that list are at least three notable names: Jony Ive (who designed the iPhone), Tony Fadell (who worked heavily on the product's engineering), and Scott Forstall (who was in charge of the iPhone's breakthrough software). Borchers, the lowest ranking employee on that list, explained in "Inside Apple" why the aforementioned top names were excluded:

The challenge with those guys is that they're super smart and they know a lot of details, but they haven't spent a lot of time in front of the press. They're likely to get asked questions that they know the answers to but that they haven't learned how to gracefully avoid answering.

Notably, Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller were a part of two very public discussions about the new iPhone following the 2007 Macworld keynote address. The video right below is of an interview with Steve Jobs and CNBC: