Here are some examples:
If Apple announced a new product or app, then a year later did a demo, then a year later nothing had happened there would be riots.
I worked for a $35B company for 18 years (started as a $400M company to be accurate). We would "soft launch" by doing selected demos and announcements and always have the product online within 3 months from the soft launch.
Now I work for and have a stake in a company that is between $5M and $10M in revenues. We soft launch by word of mouth updates and discussion about a month or so before updates are launched (all software). Never more than a month between the time we talk about it and the time we can show it in real time.
It doesn't make sense to do it another way because momentum is lost. In fact, the only logical reason to spread it out over such a long period is to placate shareholders - shareholders who are markedly unlike Apple shareholders because we have been fed nothing but empty news for years, while they have, well . . .
Anyway, you should get the idea.
LL
