In modern business -- consumer products businesses, it's very desirable to have your intentions unknown by your competition. Development times (as we are well aware) are long which makes it difficult to keep secrets.
If your product leaks to the public, or leaks to your competition, then the competitive advantage gained by whatever it is that you have been developing for a long time is lost or weakened.
Which is why Microvision is under such strict non-disclosure restrictions. If you're frustrated by them, just remind yourself that if it weren't a big deal they wouldn't care who says what.
There are two basic strategies that get us to remain un-noticed.
The first is the most common: to be as quiet and unobtrusive as possible, to be camouflaged, hidden, silent. This is the most desirable place to be.
The other - when everyone knows something is up -- is to distract.
If you're in a submarine, you want to be unnoticed by your enemy. If they do notice you, your sub is equipped with noisemakers that go off in different directions. You go from being silent, to sounding like a dozen submarines moving in different directions and hopefully by the time they figure out which one is you, you're gone.
During WWII, bombers flying over Europe would drop shredded aluminum to confuse enemy radar. The enemy knew they were coming but then at least they didn't know exactly where they were.
I'm seeing one major OEM using the distraction tactics this year. I'm not sure what's going on there.
The frustrating NDAs are there for a reason.
Our Fortune 100 partner to the public or SONY to those of us who are paying attention will be revealing why someday soon.
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