Opinion Big Apple to Steve’s Apple

Extending along Central Park South is the landmark 20-storey luxury Plaza Hotel overlooking 5th Avenue,built by the same architectural firm of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh who designed Dakota. It cost $12.5 million to construct at the turn of the century,Donald Trump paid $407.5 million in 1988 and Manhattan developer El Ad Properties spent $675 million to buy it in 2004. This hotel has been the setting for several films including Barefoot in the Park,Scent of a Woman,Home Alone 2 and Eloise at the Plaza.

Apart from stories of these two centuries-old buildings full of artistic and entertainment memorabilia,nothing had attracted me to this high-rise concrete jungle. But now a new philosophical landmark has emerged at this corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street. It is Steve Jobs’ imaginative idea of a bitten Apple that’s become a magnet for visitors of all age groups.

When mainframe manufacturer IBM was ruling the computing roost from 1936,the colourful,mysterious Apple computer suddenly appeared in 1976 to invite consumers to bite into individual small computers. The name Apple was discomfiting as it subliminally conjured up the Catholic religion’s forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve bit into to discover pleasure in the prohibited Garden of Eden. Apple reflected scientific discovery too as Newton had sat under an apple tree and proved the theory of gravitation. The Beatles had called their record company Apple,and New York is known as the Big Apple. All these other apple associations may have become history in front of this new Apple store with a glass cube housing a cylindrical glass elevator and a spiral glass staircase that leads to the underground store.

Just as the Louvre Museum in Paris now has a glass pyramid highlighting its ancient treasures,so does this historical part of New York have a glass cubicle that raises your curiosity from a distance when you spot the bitten Apple. Every moment it’s open,this huge basement store stays incredibly busy,from eight-year-olds to 80-year-olds demanding the attention of sales assistants in blue T-shirts. They seem to be from all classes of society,from a woman sporting a Louis Vuitton bag being trained on the iPad on the demo table,to young students selecting their iPods.

You become quite crazy in this fabulously designed shop where every item looks precious. In a totally commoditised market of electronics and computers,Apple is exposing tech art here,and people are enjoying the high-tech experience here. The difference between exiting the Louvre’s glass pyramid and emerging from the glass structure of the Apple store is that instead of just buying a souvenir in the Paris museum,you come out of the 5th Avenue Apple store carrying happening products from a 21st-century museum.

Steve Jobs undoubtedly imagined that a 21st-century product invention has to be introduced by creating a cultural phenomenon. He did this through a store that allows all kinds of consumers,from the rich to the poor,to experience tomorrow. A few years ago he had surprised everyone by taking over Manhattan’s Soho post office to open an Apple retailing store that looked like an art gallery,and had a large glass staircase where no joints could be seen.

Coming out from the basement Apple store I wanted to think with a cup of tea. What better place than the renovated Plaza Hotel? A young Indian waiter there mentioned that recession has hit Landmark Hotel,so they worked out a new strategy of transforming 800 rooms into residential condominiums,leaving just 200 rooms for hotel occupancy. These private apartments have been sold for as much as $50 million each.

Steve Jobs was highly criticised a few years ago when Apple plummeted into the red. But he believed that Apple is more universal than a technology product. With the iPod,he sprang back up,re-establishing the Apple way of thinking for an entire generation across the world. Then on introducing the iPad,he had young people queuing up in all continents,and sold millions of pieces on the first week itself. This just goes to show that a man’s creativity can change the world.

Set amidst fountains in an open sitting place overlooking the historic Plaza in the world’s most advanced city,Apple has conjured up new thinking by plonking itself in a well-established,open space. I can imagine that 5th Avenue can one day have its name changed to Apple Avenue. His sustaining high-value business is not only about making shareholders happy with money,it’s also about enriching different generations to experience technology and think differently by owning or touching an Apple from Steve’s thinking tree.

Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach http://www.shiningconsulting.com