One thing I'd add: IP- and idea-defense isn't always the strategy behind the stealth tactic. Oftentimes, companies are stealthy just to generate hype. It's a marketing ploy, plain and simple, usually correlated with an invite-three-friends beta a few weeks after some tantalizing tidbits about the company are "revealed" on TechCrunch.
That said, marketing gimmicry like this often makes me wonder what the company's trying to hide. A half-baked product? Timing delays? A lack of total confidence in the product's superiority to all alternatives on the market, or about to hit the market? It certainly raises more concern than interest, at least in this user.
When I think a company is limiting invites to generate buzz, it totally turns me off.
OTOH, when I can tell it's because they don't want to overload their systems, or are still clearly building something, I don't mind. It's really just that a "beta" is now a marketing ploy; my paragraph above is really discussing what used to be an "alpha".
So to me, beta = marketing, I hate it. Alpha = testing, I love it. I'm not very good at telling them apart, tho, b/c they both call themselves beta (damn you gmail!)
One thing I'd add: IP- and idea-defense isn't always the strategy behind the stealth tactic. Oftentimes, companies are stealthy just to generate hype. It's a marketing ploy, plain and simple, usually correlated with an invite-three-friends beta a few weeks after some tantalizing tidbits about the company are "revealed" on TechCrunch.
That said, marketing gimmicry like this often makes me wonder what the company's trying to hide. A half-baked product? Timing delays? A lack of total confidence in the product's superiority to all alternatives on the market, or about to hit the market? It certainly raises more concern than interest, at least in this user.