It's happened, at last, after years of waiting. Yes, Apple has finally disappeared up its own backside. That is the only explanation for the company releasing a coffee table book full of glossy photographs of its own products. Which can be yours for just $299.

Designed by Apple in California is "a new hardbound book chronicling 20 years of Apple’s design, expressed through 450 photographs of past and current Apple products". In other words, it's a catalog of Apple products from the iMac to the Apple Pencil.

According to the press release, all 450 pages of the book feature photographs shot by Andrew Zuckerman, who deserves credit for taking on the dullest vanity project ever commissioned. Especially as Designed by Apple in California took just eight short years to put together.

Cue Jony Ive, Apple's Chief Design Officer, who penned this not-at-all-pretentious foreword:

"While this is a design book, it is not about the design team, the creative process, or product development. It is an objective representation of our work that, ironically, describes who we are."

"It describes how we work, our values, our preoccupations, and our goals. We have always hoped to be defined by what we do rather than by what we say."

"We strive, with varying degrees of success, to define objects that appear effortless. Objects that appear so simple, coherent, and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative."

If you say so, Jony, if you say so.

Cheap by Apple's Usual Standards

Designed by Apple in California is being roundly mocked online. And rightly so. This is a vanity project of the highest order, with Apple literally thinking it's more important to showcase its own past designs than to work on innovating into the future.

Still, if you want your own copy, Designed by Apple in California is available to buy from Apple.com and selected Apple Stores. It comes in two sizes (because that's what Apple does), and is priced at $199 for the small version, and $299 for the large version.

How much of an Apple fan are you? Will you be spending $299 on a coffee table book no one will ever read? Or is this a sign that Apple has finally lost the plot? What would you have preferred Apple to spend eight years developing? Please let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Pixelmenschen via Flickr