Just back from a trip to Rome, Italy, I was floored by the unparalleled wealth of artistic talent and expression the city harnessed across two and a half thousand years.

Touring the Vatican St. Peter’s Basilica and its Sistine Chapel was an especially mind-blowing experience.

I kept thinking what back then were the unique circumstances that enabled this tremendously beautiful body of work? Did they see it for what it is to us today? And would we be able to create similar genius if we tried?

Clearly, Michelangelo painting his Sistine Chapel frescos today would have a decidedly different outcome compared to the genius beauty he created back in 1508 to 1512.  (Oh, if Michelangelo is too dated for you, who among us doesn’t wonder how Paul McCartney’s 60′s Beatles era genius squares with his 9/11 Freedom song out in 2001. But let me not digress ; -). Conversely, today’s great industrial design – let’s say of Apple’s Jonathan Ive genius – would have been impossible to conceive in 16th century Rome.

In other words, yes, universal artistic genius is subject to its unique time, place and circumstances.

Which brings me to our own now, here, our current environment.

For instances, do any of today’s *early 21st century* consumer digital devices and their designs count as art? If so, will any of them be considered of timeless artistic appeal in, let’s say, another two and a half thousand years from now?

To be sure, back in Michelangelo’s 16th century most art was commissioned by a few to elevate a few and typically tied to a single theme (i.e. religion). Today art is largely created by anyone for anyone, no longer limited to a canvas or church walls, instead feeding off of constant reinvention – one marketing-driven consumer *revolution* at a time.

Over the past weeks, much has been written about the late Steve Jobs and his impact on popular culture. If anything, we seem generally certain, the work that Steve accomplished jointly with Jonathan was pretty darn genius.

Whether in 4511 it will pass Michelangelo-level muster, let’s see.

For now to us anyway it is – well – insanely genius art!

It was reported recently that Sony Pictures is in final negotiations to bring Walter Isaacson’s soon-to-be-published (and much anticipated) Steve Jobs biography to the big screen.  To anyone who’s followed the consumer electronics market even casually, the irony is hard to miss: it’s hard to think of anywhere Steve Jobs (and his relentless focus on user experience) appears to have been less understood than at Sony.

Armed with concepts such as “Engineers remain the ‘movie stars’ of the electronics industry“, CEO Howard Stringer as led the company through recent years in which too many new Sony products were incompatible, user-unfriendly, and/or simply misguided.  The results?  Tremendous losses (3.1 billion US for the fiscal year ending March 2010), a decidedly unsafe-for-the-workplace Onion news clip that’s been viewed almost 5 million times on youtube alone (in fairness, Apple’s received the Onion treatment as well), and lastly, a near complete loss of brand value in regards to consumer electronics and innovation – this for the company that gave us the Walkman.

Despite having had its lunch so thoroughly eaten by Apple, though, Sony still doesn’t appear to quite get it: “If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple Inc of the US”, Stringer claimed in a 2009 interview.  The logic behind this spin almost works, if one ignores the fact that Apple itself is perhaps the poster child for closed ‘ walled garden’ system design (iTunes, anyone?).  No, a stubborn attachment to proprietary technologies such as ATRAC and the Memory Stick was not the primary cause behind the current sad state of affairs at Sony (although it almost surely contributed).  Instead, a more constructive place to look would be towards the products themselves – towards the utility, value, and user experience they offer.

As it turns out,  maybe engineers aren’t “the movie stars of the electronics industry”, maybe they’re just the engineers of the electronics industry – and if there is anyone deserving of being put on a pedestal, maybe it’s the consumer.

That’s perhaps at the core of Steve Jobs’ professional legacy.  As to regard for the consumer over at Sony, just the fact that Stringer is quoted above using the term ‘electronics industry’ rather than the more common (and accurate) term ‘consumer electronics industry’ is perhaps telling.

Here’s hoping that if he’s still at Sony in a few years when his Steve Jobs movie finally comes out, Sir Stringer watches it closely.

The announcements today (October 4th) coming from Cupertino’s giant didn’t make everyone smile -most did not get what they expected.  It was a tough first presentation for the new Apple CEO – the first in the era after Steve Jobs – and he really might have wondered if he had raised the bar high enough.

But why should he?  Apple continues to sell the current iPhone 4 briskly and is moving strongly into new markets like China.  So the company is focusing on more efficient and stable production conditions and the optimization of international sales.  And what could be more needed than a “World Phone”, a phone running all international mobile network standards and providing ultimate flexibility?  Not only for customers, but also for their retail chain.  Simply put, one model to be sold worldwide.  A producer’s dream coming true…

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Peter Kafka from All Things Digital writes today that Apples is thinking about launching a $30 per month iTunes-based subscription service to carry cable and broadcast television programming early next year.

According to unnamed sources, over the past few weeks Apple has been pitching the idea to several of the major broadcast and cable networks.  As the article correctly points out, it’s a tough sell: cable networks will are not going to do anything to jeopardize the lucrative business model currently in place, in which they receive both a large cut of the advertising revenue as well as subscription fees from the cable carrier – and everyone is probably tremendously cautious about the effect on ad load, given the inability so far to monetize internet video through advertising (even industry leader hulu has had trouble selling its inventory).

However, there’s something we think the ‘All Things Digital’ article misses…  something important…

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