If I were still in NYC, I'd buy this week's New York magazine issue as I'm just real curious how the new iPhone will do (scheduled for release any day now) and what the new ad campaign will be like. (update: best review). I twice went through the product description on the computer banks in NYC's Fifth Avenue Apple Store. The phone is pricey, doesn't have a qwerty keyboard like the blackberry or treos and I just wonder if this will fly. New York magazine's article asks if the Lazarus of Apple has risen for the last time and has quotes of Jobs' messianistic self-perception.
The pop art cover illustration of Steve Jobs reminds me of Richard Avedon's famous 1967 psychadellic pop art photo of John Lennon, done about a year after Lennon made his infamous remark about the Beatles' popularity as compared to that of Jesus. The magazine's eye-grabbing huge headline for the cover story made me correlate the two. (Avedon's Beatles portraits are on view currently at the Whitney as part of the Summer of Love's exhibition and I think his set of pop art Beatles define that psychadellic period as much as Andy Warhol's art defined pop art).
Arbiters of cool & culture: Lennon and Jobs --humans creating crowd frenzies. But look what Job has done, according to the New York magazine article: Apple racked up $21.6 billion in sales in the last twelve months, and $2.8 billion in profits. Its stock price has doubled in the past year; last month, AAPL was named to the S&P 100, making it a bona fide blue chip.
Related:
The iPhone and Pop Icons
The Architecture of the Apple
Apple: Enough, Already?
Apple Creatively Soldiers On
Mac & Apple: Innovating Beyond the Market Today
Yeah, 'tis funny. Apple used to be an after-thought, and now it's one of the big boys. Amazing what a few good ideas will do.
Posted by: Old Horsetail Snake | June 23, 2007 at 02:56 PM
Just a comment about New York magazine. I have never lived in New York (grew up 45 min. away in NJ), but I have subscribed to the magazine for many, many years. There is no reason to give it up! Just a thought.
Posted by: Rhea | June 24, 2007 at 05:27 PM