I guess I'm a bit of a sucker for Apple products - having resisted the onslaught for years. But it has its compensations. When my iPhone 3gs played up (after installing ios4) the Apple shop staff were very helpful and that, combined with my apparent product ownership (they have history of all my purchases even though many were bought as presents), got me a brand new phone despite being out of warranty. I discussed the secrecy thing with the staff at the time and they said that they never knew ahead of time when new stuff was coming out. Sometimes unmarked boxes of stuff would arrive in the warehouse but to open them would risk their jobs.
Recently i bought a case for the new 4S, which was advertised as fitting both that and the 4, but which didn't quite fit the newer model - we now know that they have slightly different button positions. The telephone help desk refunded the money but also said that, as it was relatively low cost item, he wouldn't waste my time returning it. Maybe i've been lucky but I can't fault their service.