iGod Cover Up For Award, And Thoughts On Earnings

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on October 22

The American Society of Magazine Editors today unveiled the finalists in its Best Cover contest, and one of them features — you guessed it — Apple CEO Steve Jobs. I don’t know how many magazine covers he’s been on in recent years, but New York Magazine’s “iGod” is the most unusual of the batch going back as far as I can remember. Seeing the cover sent me back to re-read John Heilemann’s story. This phrase caught my attention in light of Apple’s knockout earnings report tonight. “Apple’s reality is no longer in need of much distortion.” This is of course a dig at the “reality distortion field” said to emanate from Jobs when he’s spinning his vision on a marketplace that at once wants to be skeptical and also wants to believe. But it’s true: The reality is so good, the need for distortion is gone: $24 billion in fiscal 2007 sales; $3.5 billion in profits; 7 million Macs sold; 34 million iPods. How much brighter can this picture actually get? A lot apparently, if you look to the aggressive guidance Apple gave for the quarter ending in December. My only question is how much longer can the picture keep improving?

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