>>>>I'm not sure I follow. Do you mean smartphones, tablets, or some mutant hybrid? To me the basic quandary is the smaller the device, the less satisfying the display. As someone said here the other day, I don't want to watch a ballgame on a cell phone screen.
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>>The very largest display is perceived on an area of your eye measured in millimeters... and already there are devices that can cast images of any size directly onto that same area of retina. To paraphrase another poster, In 2011 we're like cavemen denying that TV ever will be possible because nobody can repaint an image quickly enough. ;-)
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>I'm really looking forward to this so I can watch movies widescreen while I drive without the damn DVD player sliding off the dashboard all the time.
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>The big factor that is going to hurt marketability on the mobile device with the virtual screen headset or whatever is that people around you are not going to actually see how cool you are, thereby reducing mobile's current customer base appeal about 90%, though once word gets out that people wearing those weird sunglasses are actually watching 3d movies there will be nice aftermarket for wannabees in cheap sunglasses that look like VR headsets.
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>It will, however, be a godsend to be able to do office work while skiing.
You really do love Apple, don't you? ;-)
I won't deny that you have at least part of a point. There is definitely an affinity for their hipness, hopefully transported to the customer with their purchase. They have done an unbelievably good job of marketing themselves and promoting the brand. Ultimately, though, it has a lot to do with creating great products. Apple II, the original Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad. I defy you to name another company that has created so many ground breaking products in the past generation. Take your time, I'll wait.
No, they are not holy. There is the cult of Steve. (Who I still think is dying). Who knew a black turtleneck and a pair of blue jeans could take you so far in business? There is the whiff of "we're smarter than you" when you walk into an Apple store. I was at the nearest one twice a couple of weeks ago getting a replacement for Allie's latest busted iPhone and the scene was like something you might have filmed as a movie short. The outrageous amount of open space in a retail store in a presumably high rent chic mall. The customers slouching around like they were anointed just to be there. An Apple employee checking you in at the door like it was a courthouse. There was one guy, white and middle aged with a gut hanging over his waist, who comported himself like Kobe Bryant. The two low to the ground workstations for young children only. Get 'em while they're young.
And of course there is the Genius Bar. No one else but The Onion would dare call the customer service desk that.
You have to admit the man has charisma. I also like it that Jobs and Woz started the whole thing in a garage. Two very unlike guys, the marketeer and the engineer. And from this we have a major corporation, sort of like Mick and Keef meeting on a train platform in London.
This is pretty good. Not hagiography.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/66625228/
