Dear CM,
You should realize that that's not the responsibility of the vice president of retail. Having enough products ready for sale and in the supply chain to maintain enough product to match anticipated demand is the job of the Chief Operating Officer.
Angela Ahrendts has done a fantastic job of refreshing the retail experience beyond the original successful first decade. Given the relationship Apple customers have with the brand and how stores were used, they should become places to learn and be inspired and not just showrooms and shelves with product.
Coming from the fashion world, she was the perfect fit for Apple in a time when computers are becoming ever more personal, in shift that leads the company to where fashion matters. Apple has always been a fashion company, not just as overtly in the way as we're seeing now. We're only going to see an increase in personalized Apple products to fit the individuality of each person. What better person then to be in charge of retail than the former CEO of a wildly successful fashion brand?
Good essay, now back up what you say. What has she done to improve the experience? And does it matter if the products aren't there to back it up. The only change i noticed is the reduced lines, which I like because it addresses the whole scalping issue.
But fashion company? Macs are about technology and supposedly improving our lives through proprietary technology. Personally I do like it when technology looks good but if it doesn't have functionality, it's useless. This is the same garbage that brought us the one button mouse, that even Jobs admitted was a mistake. It's like iOS 9, which took aesthetics over functionality making the music app almost unbearable to use.
I see the Apple remote for the Apple tv4, which originally had one of the worst user experiences of any Apple product in recent times, and only became functional after someone decided to rethink the damn thing. It did look good, but was useless to use.
But then you have the other end of the spectrum with the immensely fashionable iphone extended battery case. Apple's most fashionable product yet. I won't go into the macbook one port thing or the Apple watch, that most people have criticized enough here.
I think Jobs did a good job of balancing form and functionality, and no one expects perfection but lately it really doesn't seem Apple under Timmy O-tool can't get anything right. Personally I'm so disappointed that after being an Apple Customer for more than a decade, I'm starting to look at other companies.
Which brings us to Angela. So to be honestI don't know what refreshing experience you are talking about. For 10M a year, sure let her play with the lay out of the store. Just seems like Tim doesn't know where he is going, just like the gold watch that only lasted one product cycle.
Just a question, do you work for Angela?
