Tim Cook: Apple Retail is 'The Face of The Company'

Apple either needs to build more stores or bigger stores in high demand cities. In downtown Toronto we have a tiny store that is always packed to the rim. The experience of going into an Apple store to get help with a product at any time is diluted by the fact that you have to hunt down a specialist and hope that they understand your question/concern/request.

The olden days of being a "niche customer", one in a small family that uses Macs and being able to get dedicated help are now over. Apple is mainstream and they need to rethink the original Apple Store concept that is now outdated.

Perhaps something like this:

Floating staff for purchases, information, directions and simple requests
Genius Bar for service appointments
Expert Bar for walk up specific requests: "I need to do this, what product should I get?" Have experts for different categories that can ask each other questions to determine your needs.

Today I walked into the Apple store looking for a backup solution for my massive Aperture library and nobody alone was able to recommend a solution. After having 4 people at the table trying to find a solution, I figured it out myself and walked out with products that I hope will address my needs.

Why can't Apple push into business? That is what Apple was trying to do in the 80s and early 1990s with The Macintosh Office and the Executive Power computers like the Quadra and the original PowerBooks. So...Apple makes some great machines, they have a great and very powerful (yet simple) operating system...it can be customized for networks...

My Dad is an attorney and uses an iMac. I would venture to say his computer is the only Mac in our 12 story office building (other than mine). I don't think any other offices in our building have one Macintosh. And, there are nearly 50 offices in our building. Most of the building is attorneys and Oil and Gas companies... I work downtown in Fort Worth, Texas.

Businesses seem to use PCs because it is a custom that was established even before the IBM days, in the ENIAC era of vacuum tube computing...the Mac has been traditionally brushed off by the business community as a hobby computer invented by hippies...not for serious WORK use. A toy computer for people too dumb to know how to use a real computer, a PC.

If only people knew that Macs today are far more powerful, far more stable, far more robust, far more elegant, and far more fun to use than any Piece of Garbage wintel junk-kit they are selling to folks these days...

—then maybe people would give the Macintosh a little more recognition in this world. It's time it deserves that.

No matter how great Apple claims their retail services are, you'll always find someone or something unpleasant. With that said, I'm sure there are a lot of great experiences people have in their stores as well. So just because you had to wait 10-15 minutes for an iPad or had assistance from a rude employee doesn't mean that it's like that at every Apple Store.

Ha!

If retail is so ---- important, then why is there NO apple store within 150 miles of my (fairly major) city?!

WardC said:

I'm starting to think Tim Cook might be a smart man after all, he has handled things quite well up to this point, and Apple has continued to deliver some great, innovative, high quality products. The company is still making good money, expanding rapidly, and making smart business decisions. I don't Apple has lost its touch quite yet.

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Did you have any doubts before? It was with good reason that Steve hand-picked and groomed him as successor.

I have never liked the stores, always crowded and the staff dont know very much about computers. Plus the Genius staff members are useless.

Rogifan said:

I love how people say these things as if they're matter of fact. I'd love to see you say that to Cook or one of his SVP's faces.

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As I haven't worked for the company in a few years, I more than happily would.

toughboy said:

Apple Stores in Turkey!! Bring them on Tim!!

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I was kinda surprised when my field allowed for exporting to Turkey. It appears to be a relatively civilized place.

About 90% of my Apple retail experiences have been within the not good to terrible range.

I got so excited when one Apple employee actually treated me like any normal retail employee should.

I'm sure it's not this way everywhere.. I generally go to the Shadyside store in Pittsburgh.

Rocketman said:

I was kinda surprised when my field allowed for exporting to Turkey. It appears to be a relatively civilized place.

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Turkey is a wonderful country with astounding history and magnificent nature.. I've been/lived in many places, including NY, Providence RI, Paris, Barcelona, Cairo etc. and honestly Istanbul is far better and civilized in all aspects than many of those cities..

WardC said:

If only people knew that Macs today are far more powerful, far more stable, far more robust, far more elegant, and far more fun to use than any Piece of Garbage wintel junk-kit they are selling to folks these days...

—then maybe people would give the Macintosh a little more recognition in this world. It's time it deserves that.

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Elegant, yes. Everything else depends on the machine that you buy. There are a lot of nice computers out there. The ThinkPad line is fantastic for example. Same with Alienware laptops and HP's EliteBooks. The problem is people don't compare mac computers to other 1000 dollar plus computers. The compare them to a 300 dollar inspiron.

Overpriced and faceless

If Apple retail is its face, then apple has no face in India. And the prices are too da*n high. I hope they soon open some stores here.

BigJayhawk said:

Since you asked (rather than Googling it yourself):

Title case, or up style, is another method. Whether or not you capitalize a word in a title depends on its part of speech. According to most style guides that use title case, the basic rules are as follows:

Capitalize the first and last word in a title, regardless of part of speech

Capitalize all nouns (baby, country, picture), pronouns (you, she, it), verbs (walk, think, dream), adjectives (sweet, large, perfect), adverbs (immediately, quietly), and subordinating conjunctions (as, because, although)

Lowercase “to” as part of an infinitive

Lowercase all articles (a, the), prepositions (to, at, in, with), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or)

For example:

Why It’s Never Too Late to Learn Grammar (all words capitalized except “to,” a preposition)

ANOTHER GOOD (and correct) EXAMPLE WOULD BE:

Apple Retail is the Face of the Company, Though Lacking a Leader

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I didn't had to google it because I don't care why, It was more of a complaint, all I was saying is that it looks annoying on my Twitter timeline, I guess I had to use CAPS so you could see I was screaming..

No big deal, MacRumors is one of my favorite links for Apple news.