Without wanting to turn this into a Google Apple war, I'm not sure Google can really teach Apple too much about media launches. Whatever you think of Apple, they do launches very very well and I'm not sure they'd think they should be taking anything out of Google's playbook on this one.

It's a media event, you use it for maximum media impact, not thanking the staff. If the guy who headed that team is the best person for the job then you give it to him, if he's not then you don't.