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Apple Releases $300 Book Containing 450 Photos of Apple Products (theverge.com)
Apple has a reputation for releasing "revolutionary" products that carry higher price tags than competing products. Today, the company hasn't made that reputation any better as it has released a "$299 coffee table book" that contains 450 photographs of Apple products. The Verge reports: It's a hardcover edition, bound in linen, and is available in two sizes: $199 for a smaller 10.20" x 12.75" version, and $299 for a larger 13" x 16.25" edition. The book is simply titled Designed by Apple in California -- a name that somehow manages to be both humble and incredibly pretentious at the same time. The photos inside are all new images shot by Andrew Zuckerman, and will show off 20 years of Apple design "in a deliberately spare style." In a press statement, chief designer Jony Ive described the book as "a gentle gathering of many of the products the team has designed over the years," and hoped that it would serve as a "resource for students of all design disciplines." The book is published by Apple itself, and is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs. It is, undeniably, an act of corporate vanity publishing on an impressive scale, but it's one Apple deserves to get away with more than pretty much any other tech company. No one denies that when it comes to industrial design, Apple earns the praise it gets. That aside, though, the book's publication does show a certain amount of self-interest, navel-gazing, and even arrogance from Apple -- themes that were also present in September's unveiling of the new MacBook Pros. It's all very well to feel proud of the successes of the past, but we'll be interested to see if the company can justify releasing another such book 20 years from now.
Just when you thought their smugness and pretentiousness had peaked, they outdo themselves. Horrible, horrible, elitist excuses for human beings.
The old saw was that when corporation builds fancy new corporate headquarters, it is an indication of an "edifice complex" and a red flag.
The combination of a fancy new building _and_ a self-aggrandizing book seems dangerous to me.
An Wang's "Lessons" was published in 1986, about five years before Wang collapsed...
"The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation" came out in 1988, the year DEC merged with Compaq... it's a little hard to date the "collapse of Digital."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
No one denies that when it comes to industrial design, Apple earns the praise it gets.
Apple does not deserve praise for its designs.
Apple is not a tech company, they are a fashion company that sells tech-related luxury goods. Calling them a tech company is like calling Gucci a textile company.