Today Apple introduced the iPhone. When the ROKR came out, I thought it confirmed my suspicions that a true phone/mp3 player wouldn't work in the near future. I also thought I wouldn't want one. That was until today. Steve Jobs made me want an iPhone. Real bad. It's just so...cool. Then I stumbled upon this TIME article and realized that Apple/Jobs currently embodies the values of American exceptionalism:

Apple’s arrogance can inspire resentment, which is one reason for some of the glee over Jobs's stock options woes: taking pleasure in seeing a special person knocked down a peg is a great American pastime. (Jobs declines to talk about the options issue.) But there's no point in pretending that Jobs isn't special. A college dropout, whose biological parents gave him up for adoption, Jobs has presided over four major game-changing product launches: the Apple II, the Macintosh, the iPod, and the iPhone; five if you count the release of Pixar's Toy Story, which I'm inclined to. He's like Willy Wonka and Harry Potter rolled up into one.

That doesn’t mean Apple can operate beyond the boundaries of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the iPhone wouldn't have happened without Apple's “we're special” attitude.

That "we're special" attitude is the same reason that America is the shining beacon on the hill.

Labels: American Exceptionalism, Apple, technology

Posted by Ryan S. on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 at 11:37 PM | Permalink |