Apple had a huge day. Can anyone think of another company in the tech industry whose products are so anticipated that even a simple announcement generates so much buzz? As many others have noted, Apple creates desire for its products instead of fulfilling needs.
The new Mac G5 is hot. Okay, so it's debatable whether it will have the benchmark lead over Intel-powered machines by the time it streets, but Mac folks have been behind for so long that to even pull even or close in that race is a huge win. I certainly didn't expect such a huge performance improvement.
Even the new iSight webcam is elegantly styled. Sometimes Apple's hardware creates desire for the software (iPod for iTunes), and sometimes the software drives desire for the hardware (Final Cut Pro converted me to the Mac platform). Whether iSight drives a desire for iChat A/V or vice versa, they make a fetching couple.
Of course, none of these is revolutionary in any way. It's been a long time since Apple was a revolutionary company. But they take the plain products we're familiar with and make them sexy. One of the sexiest new features in the next version of Mac OS X (Panther) is named, appropriately, Expos