Its tablet computer can’t play most of the videos on the Web … its cell phone has trouble making voice calls … and yet its products are wildly popular, selling millions worldwide and engendering a cultish devotion among followers.

Apple is the new religion, say several academics. It’s not a matter of rationality, it’s a matter of faith.

In a research paper published this month by two professors at Texas A&M University, the authors argue that the only way to understand the slavish adoration and over-the top financial success of Apple and its “Jesus Phone” (the iPhone) is to understand its minimalist, white-walled stores as the new churches of the tech generation. More>>