How Apple won CES — again — without showing up in Vegas

Apple famously never goes to CES because, well, why would it? The tech giant can get all the attention it wants just by snapping its fingers.

But that doesn’t mean the Cupertino giant isn’t watching and waiting for the right moment to tweak the noses of all the gadget hounds in Vegas. And once again, whether the company played a direct role or not, a couple of well-timed leaks have managed to remind everyone at CES that Apple completely dominates mindshare when it comes to new tech products.

Yeterday, 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman had two incredibly well-timed scoops. One story cited sources saying the Apple Watch would go on sale in early March. The other story provided details of a new 12-inch MacBook Air. One day later, those stories were still dominating social media chatter and insider sites like Techmeme.

All those other people who spent boatloads of money to travel to Vegas so they could launch thousands and thousands of new products were gasping for air, hoping their new connected-car-dog-collar-health-sensor-bluetooth-mobile-social-baby-monitor-refrigerator could get the barest bit of notice amid the chaos of CES.

Did Apple coordinate the leak? Hard to say, since Gurman is incredibly well-sourced when it comes to Apple. Still, the timing for Apple is certainly delicious.

And particularly when it comes to the Apple Watch, the news served as a reminder that the entire wearable industry is basically on hold until this device goes on sale and the world sees whether Apple can indeed make smartwatches a real product that real people care about.

Last year, the company wasn’t shy about tooting its horn during CES, when it put out a press release calling everyone’s attention to the fact that its App Store still loomed over just about everything people were talking about trying to connect.

Apple issued the same kind of release during CES 2013, plus chief executive Tim Cook made a headline-grabbing visit to China to meet suppliers and talk possible expansion.

Is it fair that Apple can still grab that kind of attention? Probably not. But for the moment, when it comes to new gadgets, there is Apple, and then there is everyone else.