I think the intent of this message was to admit failure internally only. It was a corporate email, not a press release.
Bill Gate's emails were a lot more strongly worded than this email from Jobs. Take the Gates email about Windows Movie Maker that was published everywhere last month as an example.
Also, Microsoft's ad campaign boils down to "despite what you've heard, we think you'd like Windows Vista if you gave it a try. So why don't you?" In other words, it isn't "you are wrong for disliking Vista" but more like "what you've heard about Vista is wrong or outdated."
I agree with you about Google. They rarely say anything, good or bad. If there is a specific widespread problem then they might admit there is a problem and then issue a statement when it is fixed; their commentary is minimal if not non-existent.
I think the intent of this message was to admit failure internally only. It was a corporate email, not a press release.
There's a fertile grey area between the top-secret internal email and the press release, ranging from deliberately dropping a copy of your "top-secret" email on the floor of a journalist's office to deliberately sending the email to a bunch of people who are known to be bad at keeping secrets.
Apple's pretty good at keeping secrets. When something leaks out of Apple within 24 hours I tend to assume that it had some assistance.
I think the diplomatic wording is another clue that Jobs, at the very least, doesn't care that this email got out.
The way Apple keeps secrets is by keeping information strictly need to know. Anything that gets sent out to the whole company is usually leaked pretty quickly.
Bill Gate's emails were a lot more strongly worded than this email from Jobs. Take the Gates email about Windows Movie Maker that was published everywhere last month as an example.
Also, Microsoft's ad campaign boils down to "despite what you've heard, we think you'd like Windows Vista if you gave it a try. So why don't you?" In other words, it isn't "you are wrong for disliking Vista" but more like "what you've heard about Vista is wrong or outdated."
I agree with you about Google. They rarely say anything, good or bad. If there is a specific widespread problem then they might admit there is a problem and then issue a statement when it is fixed; their commentary is minimal if not non-existent.