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At this point, it is all part of the buildup and drama or releasing new products. Creating a buzz.

Definitely.

We wouldn't be talking about it.

> What I don't understand is why the store has to go down for new products?

Hint: We are now here talking about it.

Right now, all over the world, there are hundreds of news outlets covering this "downtime". Also right now, thousand of users a refreshing the page to see whats coming.

I am pretty confident that they are not losing any money during this, quite the opposite ;)

I think Apple can get away with having their online store down for a few hours and not miss out on making money, unlike Amazon. Also as evidenced by this post it builds marketing hype.

Apple and Amazon are on the opposite ends of the e-commerce spectrum.

Amazon is about volume of sales, Apple is about hype and class.

It's just plain old marketing strategy. And one that has been working for quite a while.