I was quite surprised to see an iPhone ad during the Oscars last week. With all the free publicity being generated for Apple, I really didn’t think they’d need to advertiser until the summer - if ever. Seriously, when my mum tells me she’s heard of a tech gadget, it means it’s pretty much made it to saturation point. Without a doubt, the iPhone will be completely sold out at launch, and for months going forward, I’d expect to see them selling for $1200 on eBay. All that being said, Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ bet paid off like a gushing Vegas jackpot. The avalanche of headlines and TV news stories about the iPhone - which hits the market in June - already have generated $400 million in free publicity, says Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie. “No other company has ever received that kind of attention for a product launch,” Yoffie says. “It’s unprecedented.”

Apple really is like a rock group - they have fans, they have fanboys, they have an audience who are happy to fork out hundreds of dollars on new products. In short, they are everything Samsung, LG, Sony and Microsoft strive to be.