Apple Retail Under Angela Ahrendts: Focus on Mobile Payments, Customer Experience, and China

[mw360]

Then why not use an Apple taken photo?

Why does a female's picture have to be airbrushed for all these "reasons" people have mentioned? Why can't she just have a stock photo like the male execs?

If females truly are to be on the same level playing field as men in the workplace - as they 100%, absolutely should - why the need for an artificially enhanced photo? This is a serious question, not rhetorical or sarcastic.

What on earth are you talking about? Have you just dug yourself into a hole with this and want to keep digging until you come out of the other side?

It's you who've started this big drama, staring too closely at the photo and seeing processing effects that just aren't there. You could be talking about her career and her ideas but you've made it a debate about her skin complexion instead. Male photos are retouched too. If you think corporate portraits are somehow immune from it you know practically nothing about the subject. The difference is, when males get their shoulders broadened, or their shaving rash cleared up, or their hair thickened, or their brows tidied, or their teeth whitened or their tie straightened, its not so obvious, and amateur photo-sleuths like you don't get to point the finger of blame in order to humiliate the subject.

It's not an Apple photo, as you now realise, but MacRumors are under no obligation to use an Apple photo. It's up to you, the reader, to realise that things you may see posted here are not necessarily direct from Apple's PR dept. Don't blame Apple for the retouching, or Burberry, or MacRumors, or Ahrendts, or 'society'. The photo was retouched by the photographer, or his assistant almost certainly before anybody else even saw the photo. That's what portrait photographers do, they flatter, because otherwise they don't get all that high-paying work.

 

[louiek]

The whole picture is completely touched up for no apparent reason, complete with the background blurring. She CAN afford make up, she ISN'T 21 - but to have a professional photo that is so obviously doctored for no real purpose is absurd.

Don't worry, it'll be replaced on the front page by a photo of Jimmy Iovine any moment now ....... Ah, there we go.

 

[CL4W]

Milf

 

[thekeyring]

Should be interesting to see what happens. I was in my local Apple Store and asked an employee 'Have you had the new Mac Pro in?'. I was given a blank look for a moment then 'Oh! Is that the one that looks like a rubbish bin?'.

I was quite surprised, to say the least.

I still love the store, though

 

[teknikal90]

The whole picture is completely touched up for no apparent reason, complete with the background blurring. She CAN afford make up, she ISN'T 21 - but to have a professional photo that is so obviously doctored for no real purpose is absurd.

not sure if serious or not.......................
looks just like a photo taken with a fast lens with the aperture set open wide??

 

[fourthtunz]

That was an old Burberry pic (presumably)

This is her Apple portrait. Not as flattering, but more genuine.

In any event she is a smart and very attractive woman.

 

[parlour]

Making changes to a system that continues to rank #1 in the world is hard to do. We all know what happened when the guy that helped create the Apple system went to JCP and created an improvement over what Apple was doing. Warning, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

If you are into death and decay then that’s the right approach.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” is a stupendously wrong maxim to have in the long run.

 

[thermodynamic]

Definitely - she could follow up to see if Chinese workers are still committing suicide under inhumane conditions at the plants they work for that make Apple's products...

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If you are into death and decay then that’s the right approach.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” is a stupendously wrong maxim to have in the long run.

"Everything is broken".

There's a maxim for the ages...

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In any event she is a smart and very attractive woman.

She definitely is. Or looks it. The smartest people tend to think outside the box, rather than pandering to and playing inside of it.

 

[Frazzle]

She's come in from the fashion industry and after 3 weeks has a plan to 'improve' Apple stores? I find that highly suspect. I'd go in and spend at least 90 days visiting stores, talking to people (especially ordinary customers and sales people, as nobody knows who you are yet) and getting a feel for the business. Chances are, these people can tell you about 98% of every major problem in the business. Then you prioritize your insights, create a plan and talk it through with your team, so that everyone not just knows what to do but also why it has to be done - and how they contributed to it. This is not rocket science, but it can't be done in 3 weeks for any global operation. Still, this was all based on some magazine article that didn't actually talk to the woman so...