Apple devotion as religious fanaticism is rhetorical old hat. Perhaps it is more than tired flamebait, though. The Atlantic points to a paper by Texas A&M's Heidi Campbell that lays out the four narrative myths that make Apple "divine":
1. a creation myth highlighting the counter-cultural origin and emergence of the Apple Mac as a transformative moment;
2. a hero myth presenting the Mac and its founder Jobs as saving its users from the corporate domination of the PC world;
3. a satanic myth that presents Bill Gates as the enemy of Mac loyalists;
4. and, finally, a resurrection myth of Jobs returning to save the failing company...
(That's myth in the Joseph Campbell sense, people, not its more modern iteration.) The Atlantic uses it as a pivot point to argue how unaffected Apple is by Antennagate when it's all said and done. In fact, it might've boosted the hero and resurrection myths, with Steve Jobs delivering free bumpers to fix the problem, shortly before Apple posted their best quarter ever.
It's not a bad thing, to be divine: Ideology is more powerful than mere brand loyalty. I wonder what the sacred text would be, though. [new media & society via The Atlantic]