I’m not going to list what Apple did right with its iPad. Seth Godin covered that yesterday.

Rather, I’d like to point out that Apple had another of its grand product launches — this time of the new operating system for the iPhone, version 4.0.

Again, Steve Jobs was on stage, along vice presidents from Apple and partner software companies.

Again, the techie sites like Gizmodo and Engadget liveblogged the launch.

What’s that you say?

CNN did too? Yes.

The launch was displayed prominently on the New York Times Web site? Yes.

MSNBC even featured this headline as a main story: “iPhone to get long-awaited multitasking ability.”

Which means Apple has managed to turn the release of a smartphone operating system update into a major national news story.

Can you imagine a Blackberry software update enjoying a position among national headlines? What about a Nokia Symbian update?

Apple launches are media events.

Why?

Because Apple is the only company in America (in any industry) to have consumer evangelists.

It even has evangelists in the media.

Apple’s relationship with media is similar to John McCain’s in 2000: the media is Apple’s base.

Develop evangelists. The headlines will follow.