And will those feet, in modern times, walk upon London's streets so clean?
Steve Jobs doesn’t travel much, so the rumour that he might be in London tomorrow to open Apple’s Covent Garden store and headquarters may just turn out to be true. Not that you’ll find out in advance; Apple’s PR is so locked down you’d have a better chance of them telling the time and date of the Second Coming than whether Mr Jobs was knocking around. Whatever, we certainly would not recommend you turning up on the off chance.
God knows why there needs to be so much security. Yes, Steve Jobs is famous, but I wonder if he walked down the street in London whether many people (eg al-Qaeda terrorists; well wishers) would notice him. But he is American famous, which means security entourages, humourless and pompous public relations, ludicrous glitz and glamour and all that.
I can’t quite remember the last time Jobs was in London, although he visited EMI back in 2007 after he managed to browbeat the Brit music major into giving up copy protection on digital music. That was a big enough win for Mr Jobs to hit the British capital, although such was the anticipation that it was hoped he was about the announce the much-hyped ”Beatles on iTunes” deal. (Don’t bet on that this time either).
If he is in town, it will be interesting to see who – if anybody – gets the interview. My money would be on The Sunday Times after Rupert Murdoch’s game changing remarks about the iPad this week and the ubiquitous BBC.
We’ll wait and see what happens, but even so, the mere fact of Apple opening a shop will no doubt make the news tomorrow. Can you think of any other company that can do that?
