I’m sending Ahmadinejad some Apple products


I don’t know if you caught any of the footage from this thing where the new Shah of Iran was visiting New York this week and totally got into it with some hecklers and haters. The poor little guy is just so filled with anger. But beneath the anger there is also this incredible sadness. You can hear it in his voice, at least you can if you speak Persian, which I do. I listened to some of the audio from the event and honestly, I almost cried. So much pain! It brought me way back to 1976, to the original days at Apple and the goals we started out with. This is what we wanted to deal with. The anger, the pain, the sadness, the negativity. We saw our own culture wounded and saddened by a long and painful war, trying to recover. We saw our culture in pain and decided you know what? These people need beautiful consumer electronics.

Anyhoo. Long story short, I had my people pack up a crate of Apple products for the Shah and send them to him in New York. A few MacBooks, some iMacs, a variety of iPods, and an iPhone that they won’t be able to use but at least they can play with the screen. My feeling is, let’s reach out. Let’s show these folks the best things about America, about the West. Show them our wonderful toys and invite them to use them too. Bridge-building has to begin somewhere. We’re also talking about maybe opening a flagship retail store in Tehran. Namaste, crazy little Shah. I honor the place where your fingers and my iPod Touch become one. Much love. Peace out. (Photo: Khalil Gibran, Maxim.)