Of Apples and Vespas

Blame it on the iPod's "halo effect" of converting longtime PC users to Apple, but it was my scootering on a Vespa that finally convinced me to switch to Mac OS. I've never looked back since.

When I started this blog, what I had in mind was to draw the similarities between Apples and Vespas, of which, there are many. I've since divided this blog into its two parts probably due to braindrain on my part, but here are the points where Apples and Vespas converge:

- industrial design with smooth, clean lines
- ease of use
- reliability and low maintenance
- a "think different" philiosophy

Upon further reading on this topic, I stumbled upon Vespa memorabilia in the form of a 1969 poster which featured the peculiar slogan "chi vespa mangia le mele." He Who Vespas Eats Apples. It would become Vespa's most successful ad campaign ever.

It seemed that when Vespa started on this advertising campaign, what they had in mind was to touch a youthful nerve with a hint of rebelliousness, free love and self-expression that was prevalent at the time, not dissimilar to the serpent's enticement to a clueless Eve: an apple. Was it Eve who owns that famous bite on today's Apple Computer logo? Many claim it is.

Years after the Fall of Man, another apple would spark another revolution of its own when it casually landed on the cranium of a certain Isaac Newton. This fabled incident will lead to what we now call the Law of Gravity - the force that keeps the Universe together and would serve as the original logo of a fledgling garage startup in a town called Cupertino in 1976.

Today, Apple computers are dutifuly meeting the needs of the similarly-themed Vespa Soho store in downtown New York City and they are both writing new history together.

Chi Vespa Mangia Le Mele.