get bent?
That's a hell of an insult.
I bring up an ongoing issue with internet bullies and gender inequality and you are getting mad at me?
LOL - your mom wouldn't like hearing this.
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Angela Ahrendts is Now Simply Senior Vice President of Retail as Apple Drops 'Online Stores' From Her Title
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That's a hell of an insult.
I bring up an ongoing issue with internet bullies and gender inequality and you are getting mad at me?
LOL - your mom wouldn't like hearing this.
Incidentally, I don't dislike her in that role because she is female. I dislike her in that role because the changes that she has implemented for Apple (the merging of the online store with the website, and so many Apple Retail store changes made in the last couple of years) are largely not good ones for me as an Apple customer. It is possible to not like women or people of color for reasons that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with them being such.
I disagree. The thing is my iPhone would work indefinitely were it not for Apple pushing forced updates. You can't turn off the nag screen if you don't want to update but that is only a minor annoyance. The real problem is the entire ecosystem pushes you forward. For example, developers are now force updating apps. My bank app only runs on the latest version of iOS and even older versions of the app expire. This in effect "forces" me to update my phone eventually if I want to keep using mobile banking or the apps I use everyday. Another example, I was a Snow Leopard holdout until last month and would be still but my iPhone that I had been successfully using with iTunes 11 suddenly quit. A replacement of the exact same model through Applecare wouldn't sync with iTunes 11. In order to get my data back, I needed to upgrade to iTunes 12, which inexplicably can only be run on higher versions of the OS (there's no technical reason why it can't run on older OSes). So I had to update to El Capitain, which disrupted a well-oiled production machine. The minute my drinking glasses do that, I'll agree with you. Until then, I'll be drinking out of my 1960s era Mad Men Highball glasses. Because, you know, fashion.
Nah. Still have the same IBM registers as Kmart/Sears/Pennies from circa 1994.
Big box mall retailers refuse to update their financial technology. Even Kohls have 1st gen touch screen LCDs that rarely work or are broken.
Retailers refuse to infuse more cash into their stores for tech/displays/fixtures.
Namely, Sears and Kmart refuse to put $1 into their stores. Coming from 6 years as a Sears Manager, we were told to paint the shelving and fixtures. Yes....paint. We also removed lightbulbs from the store floor and stockrooms to save power. When i saw that happen, I revised my resume quick and jumped ship faster than the crew from the Titanic.
And then they throw on chip cards and Apple Pay and wonder why it runs so slow. Chips are really fast at Walgreens, but their registers run windows 7, not DOS
Let's keep it simple. Can anyone list the value added contributions this individual has made that have demonstrably provided a return on the stupid salary and options she gets ( and that couldn't have been made by any other hardworking marketing/retail specialist out there who earns a pittance in comparison)?
There is no issue, you're making it up to cause artificial drama where none exists. So yeah, to poster you're replying to is right.
Internet bullying and gender inequality are real issues. So all you're doing it making light of the real problem and helping make it worse. You're not the solution YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.
Any interest in explaining why you think she has been so great for Apple, in terms of what she has indeed accomplished which someone else would't have?
I have been reading the thread from the beginning and I see you constantly shooting down posters who give specific reasons why they don't like what she has done, but your posts never explain why you think those reasons are not valid in your opinion and what your reasons are for thinking she is doing such a great job ...
No problem.
Angela was brought in to expand apple stores. She has succeeded. There are far more apple stores opening than Steve Jobs would have ever dreamed of.
Secondly she was brought in to improve on the customer experience. I believe she's done that based on the JD Power rankings of customers. I would confidently say that the apple experience in store is better today than it was a few years ago.
Finally she took over Dixon CEO John Browett. He was all about cost cutting. He was not a great fit for apple in terms of customers.
Angela is for customers and imo makes her a great fit.
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First of all, you have some great taste in drinks and glasses!
I have run into similar situation with incompatibilities, so I feel your pain. That's part of what I meant by "no longer functions as intended". That being said, Apple has gotten better at supporting older devices with the latest OS and security upgrades, effectively prolonging their hardware longevity.
My Early '09 Mac mini lasted me a good 7.5 years without a single issue until Sierra was released, and even now I can still use it for my web dev workflow. My parents are perfectly happy with their 4-year-old iPhone 5's, which is still supported for at least the coming year, even though the hardware is reaching "vintage" status.
For those who "hold it the right way" and not setting things up as "well-oiled production machines", which I think is the real majority (who likely don't frequent MacRumors) it will work just fine. Most people simply don't do much with their lives other than emails, YouTube/Netflix, facebook, Snapchat, Tinder, and so on. You get the picture..
P.S. Wouldn't you be able to do some level of banking with your bank's mobile website?
She did open new stores. But honesty is that such a great achievement when you come to a flourishing business like apple and the retail network was massively expending already before you joined?
Sales are now stagnating or dropping for key product lines and China is slowing down massively - and I think store openings will slow down accordingly.
I'll just agree to disagree as it is really not my experience. I will not reiterate in details as I have partly explained it in a previous post but Apple Stores have became unclear for non Apple fanboys with some clueless staff as well, and the website does make buying non-mainstream products and accessories quite a pain.
I have basically had 3 experiences in the retail network in the past 2 years (no Apple Store in my country) and all have been mixed bags (and clearly on a downwards slope compared to my experience visiting Apple Stores regularly which started around 10 years ago). 2 are purchasing experiences whereby I eventually got what I wanted but had to spend more time than needed and double check things myself or wait for the sales staff to confirm something because they were not very aware of the product and services they are meant to sell. One is a support experience whereby my product was eventually fixed but getting an appointment at the genius bar was a pain (planning always full and need to plan 2 weeks in advance), I had to wait standing for 30 minutes as they were late and didn't have enough seats for the people waiting (that was a large flagship store in Paris).
This is the one point on which I will agree, she seems to be the first person able to stay into the role for more than a few months after Ron Johnson's departure.
When it comes down to it - can we fault her for Apple's incremental updates to her products?
What are some suggestions that would help turn things around?
I thought her effort to stop apple nerds from showing up to wait in line was genius. Nobody likes waiting in lines regardless what a few apple loyalists say. She really pushed the customer from waisting away their lives in line.
Remember when she created Apple Appointments to try out the watch? That is unheard in the industry.
LOL - sounds ridiculous now to make an appointment to wait to try on a watch and not buy it but she was trying to train the customer to understand their complicated 1st iteration of a watch.
As an Apple customer, I hate shopping at the Apple Stores. The one Apple Store that I do enjoy spending time in is a store I enjoy specifically because they are not following her rules. Gone is QuickDrop (which, if you are a savvy power user who knows exactly what your Mac needs done to it was fantastic because it saved you the time of having to book a 15 minute appointment that wasn't necessary at all). Waiting for the Genius Bar at most Apple Stores feels like waiting for an appointment at the local DMV (and at least at the local DMV, they give you chairs to sit in). These are things that went bad under Browett and while the chaos factor that he introduced disappeared when she took the reins, the overall experience of being in an Apple Store did not improve. Furthermore, the merging of the Apple.com site and the Apple Online Store was and is still an unintuitive mess that still makes no sense and doesn't simplify anything whatsoever. I don't doubt that she was amazing with Burberry. But I have not been impressed with her at Apple. And I'll tell you right now, that has absolutely ZERO to do with whether she is a man or a woman.
Will second an above comment as well that substantially more Apple Store employees are inept than were in the Ron Johnson era. This can't solely be attributed to John Browett anymore.
So I'm a true abuser based on what I just said?
You are an abuser by making a mockery of real issues so the real message is lost in your nonsense.
Here in China when you buy an Apple product in store you can't return it without a reason within 7 days while you can do so in online store. Not only not integrated, it feels a bit discriminated.
I can buy that, yeah. But Ahrendts certainly had nothing to do with this. ;-)
I can see you've been engaged with Apple for a long time and I can def appreciate your perspective. It seems to me that Apple [and its long term fans] are suffering the blessings/curses of Apple rapidly transforming into a behemoth. The sad part is that Apple does not have to appeal or even cater to the loyal fanbase that got them where they are. They have really moved beyond that beloved, boutique, geek centric company into a centralized, global powerhouse. Apple as a company has "matured" and its major growth phase is probably over. They will be doing amazingly well to maintain their position at their current scale. Their products by and large are still excellent and competitive albeit less satisfying to coinniseurs of innovation or software functionality.
The fact that I don't like what she's done is based on performance, not her sex. The world is too thin-skinned nowadays and everyone is quick to pull out the gender or race card.
Oh, I'm totally with you on that.
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The only things we have really seen her "do" is change the retail product release strategy (watches only on pre-order and stuff like that).
What we don't see is all the other changes she might have done to retail operations that are hidden to the consumer's eye.
If you think about this logically she must be doing really great things for Apple. Publicly she has had some issues (as just mentioned), and if those are the only things she has done, she would have already recieved a severance package. Remember that she does not have a track record at Apple like some other people that were let go in recent history.
In other words: Apple's retail strategy is so pivotal to the success of the company that they (shareholders et al) certainly would not allow someone to mess it up or do nothing. There is a lot that we don't know. The same goes for Cook by the way.
This raises the question whether a 50 mio signing was a necessity, and worth the issues, to accomplish that.
My guess is that the expectations (50x the performance of an ordinary millionaire exec) can't be met by anybody (male or female, whether Angela or anyone else)
The way she overrated herself with the AppleWatch is exemplary (no fashion item, nowhere to be found in boutiques, airports, magazines, jewellery shops, completely failed positioning as a jewel or luxury item)
Employing and reviewing her is beyond Tim Cook's tenure, (so it does not happen) and degrades his relevance. Therefore, she is disturbing the line of hierarchy.
With her, Iovine, dr Dre and the likes the company is more about celebs than products. People who are busy to fulfill their own Greatness rather than work on the next Big Thing (which isn't to be)
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And therefore we benchmark Apple against the world's powerhouses that HAVE a modern product catalogue, and do not waterboard their customers with Beta software.
Their VP's are in business and factories, and do not continuously flatter the world with selfies, celebs and Bentley's. Their corporate social responsibility is intrinsic. Gender-, sexual, or race diversity is part of their common sense. Their PR agenda has NOT become an obstacle for their business.
They deliver instead of phrasing emptiness into greatness.
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