In every single business the people that actually sell the stuff, such as salesmen and distributors, hear it before the actual customer does. Same with keyboards.
Every single business? Really? Surely you've seen websites like Engadget. They preview/review stuff before it's released. They talk about it and build buzz and people know about stuff coming out in the near future and plan accordingly. Sales people don't get much more of a heads up that the press. That said, I know a number of the makers are small companies and aren't involved in all aspects of the business (manufacturing, distribution in different markets.) And they seem to have quite complicated business arrangements. For example, I'm still not quite sure how all the different parties involved in the KBT products are related. In any case it seems like they have a super engaged audience and could be making a lot of it.
I knew about this over a year ago, but it wasn't leaked until much more recently, and only announced yesterday. (I have a family member working for Keurig, and got to use a prototype.) Not everything gets leaked like that.
Exactly, with the exception perhaps of a few high-tech consumer markets such as certain computer electronics, most of this is simply not known to most of the actual consumers. Electronics is an exception to the rule and a weird one at that.
Sure Apple and Sony cameras have their own rumor websites, but for example the outdoor industry has a lot of different companies developing their own materials. Even when it actually hits the stores you still have to tell every single customer why it is different from what they already know.
Gore-tex Active Shell vs.
Polartec Neoshell for example.
