In hindsight, it's amazing that no one saw it coming. After all, Angela Ahrendts, the soon-to-be-former chief executive of Burberry, the woman who has more than tripled the brand's share price in her eight years at the helm, dropped enough hints.
In a video entitled Burberry's social story, for example, the UK's highest-paid CEO in 2012 holds up her iPhone and announces, “This is the entry into the brand.” The recent Burberry spring/summer 2014 collection was photographed, videoed and streamed on the iPhone 5S. And Ahrendts (along with chief creative officer and next CEO Christopher Bailey) transformed the quintessential British heritage brand into the perennial top scorer in think-tank L2's “Digital Luxury Index”.
Yet, last October, when Ahrendts announced she was leaving Burberry to become senior vice-president, retail and online stores, at Apple, the luxury and technology worlds dropped their collective jaws.