The Magic in Apple’s Devices ? The Heart - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/business/media/the-magic-in-apples-devices-the-heart.html
L’informatique : une sous partie de l’industrie du spectacle ?
When the event was over, you didn’t need a watch from the future to know what time it was: Apple had done it again. By choosing the same site where Mr. Jobs announced the Macintosh computer 30 years ago, and by archly referring to “one more thing” — a Jobs tic when breaking big news — Tim Cook, the chief executive, directly embraced his legacy and sent a message that the company still had magical properties.
Apple’s ability to seize the moment and preoccupy the press is without peer. Think about it: Absent that showmanship and hype, the company announced two very good-looking, very expensive phones that catch up with consumers’ preference for larger screens, a smartwatch coming after other brands that has an unstated battery life and a payment system that will need buy-in from retailers. All these products require sharing new kinds of data at a time when some of Apple’s most prominent customers had their privacy breached in intimate and embarrassing ways.
So, what is it about Apple that makes a sea of professional curmudgeons whoop like children on Christmas?
Given the company’s history of maniacal secrecy and penchant for declining to comment on everything, its sway with the news media is even more remarkable. But just as the elegant packaging on Apple products is as important as what’s inside, the stage management of its events rivals what is being announced.
Nothing is left to chance. Seating charts are meticulously studied, rehearsals are endless and strategic leaks are used to temper expectations. Detailed briefing books are distributed to the public relations team and then sometimes shredded. The audience claps because everything — the lighting, the fanfare, the reveal — is meant to elicit applause.