iPhone 5S and 5C now also in Italy The ritual of waiting infects ... - The Messenger

That Apple is a religion. And like all religions, it’s got its rituals. must start from this, indispensable prerequisite if you want to try to understand what happens inside and outside of Apple stores to the onset of each new, expensive device, although not very different from the previous, perhaps only a few months left before .

Do not be surprised if the cult of the Cupertino company has been exported here in Italy: the file kilometers outside the store are not “un’americanata” or something that you see only in Japan or Korea. This morning, in the capital, outside the Apple store to Port of Rome before the opening there were about 150 people, mostly boys between 18 and 26 years. Many of them have stayed there, waiting for the doors would open and transparent the store to buy them to be allowed to enter, the modest sum of 729 euro, their new iPhone 5S, in the basic version. Only a few have opted for the cheapest iPhone 5C, the colorful but less innovative, which costs 629 euro.

It does not matter if the concept of “new”, for the company founded by Steve Jobs and technological devices in general, is actually a very relative concept and extremely transient. At the end of Porta di Roma the first was Luke, a twenty year old, followed by Antony, 23 year old photographer who can not wait to come out to buy the new iPad as well. But the same scenes we saw in Bologna, Milan, or Marcianise in Campania. Just to say that the cult of Apple succeeds well to unite Italy.

The rite of so-called “Mac Evangelist” is the same everywhere: the tail, the wait along with rivals but they are also companions, because in the end they all share the same faith. And then chants, some pushing and finally the curtain that opens before the eyes of the pilgrims, the divine light that shines the Apple logo, the staff in blue t-shirt dancing, clapping, laughing, runs and jumps everywhere, with lots of music. The store becomes the scene, consumerism becomes a spectacle.

The transparent doors of the church open, the faithful enter, greeted by the ushers-priests, who receive them lovingly and with little regard accompany them to take the Eucharist the sacrament par excellence: the purchase. In the Apple Store is not passed to the cashier, because it is the case that passes by you: the clerk hands you directly to the ATM machine, and you’re done. Free to go and spread the word. At least until the next novelty.