Last but not least: iPhone, therefore I am

 Apple's iPhone has been on the market in the USA since Friday evening at 6pm local time. The buzz surrounding the phone has been huge, with Apple fans licking their fingers since the day it was announced. People eager to buy camped out in the rain for hours in front of the store selling the promised devices. There was a roar of applause when the first phone went over the counter. Although the device will not be launched on the European market until the end of the year, it is dominating the media in this country too. According to the NZZ am Sonntag, over ten thousand articles on the subject have appeared worldwide in the last few days. If Google News is to be believed, hundreds of media reports are added online every hour. New York magazine put Apple boss Steve Jobs on the front page with the headline "iGod". Even the serious Wall Street Journal got carried away with the headline "Jesus Phone". While social scientists can now rack their brains as to why a simple cell phone has suddenly attained the status of a religious remedy, communication experts have to admit: Apple has pulled off a magnificent coup. One hardly dares to calculate what all the media attention would have cost if one had wanted to buy advertising space for it. The hustle and bustle only drowns out the quiet sighs of advertising managers around the globe: They wish in their wildest dreams that the iPhone would dominate the advertising pages as much as the editorial section.