Nothing is left to chance. Seating charts are meticulously studied, rehearsals are endless and strategic leaks are used to temper expectations. Detailed briefing books are distributed to the public relations team and then sometimes shredded. The audience claps because everything — the lighting, the fanfare, the reveal — is meant to elicit applause. (This might be a good spot to mention that I was among the people who picked up the pom-poms after the iPad event, going on Charlie Rose’s show and elsewhere to extol its game-changing virtues.)

Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster in Silicon Valley, has watched a number of big product announcements from Apple and Mr. Jobs over the years.

“Steve’s immortal contribution to Apple is the reality distortion field, to create expectations and then convince the audience to be a willing accomplice,” he said.

My colleague Claire Cain Miller pointed out in an email that Apple had achieved its positive publicity through scarcity.

“They build up so much hype by being so secretive and controlling with the press and then they do these blockbuster events,” she said. “They practically force people to speculate and help them build hype and then cheer when they finally release the info.”

There are occasional departures from the lovefest, most notably The New York Times’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series on the iEconomy, about the blood and tears behind the manufacture of many of Apple’s products. And there is plenty of rigorous coverage in blogs and traditional media. Not everyone hugs himself when a new product is announced. Anthony De Rosa of the news start-up Circa said in an email, “I’ve been pretty unimpressed with their post-Jobs era, which lacks imagination and seems more like a company protecting their bottom line rather than going after moonshots,” he said. (While we are at it, he’s mad Apple put U2 on his phone without his permission.)

Still, Americans have a much more intimate relationship with Apple than they did with previous business behemoths like United States Steel or General Electric. After all, we hold its devices in our hands, often using them to touch images and messages from people we love. That emotional connection continues to grow.