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Angela Ahrendts Officially Leaving Apple Today
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I hope Deirdre takes a long hard look at the current status of the Apple stores in the UK at least.
I couldn't disagree more with Tim's statement that "our relationship with customers is stronger than ever", I have never felt more disconnected with Apple.
With recently visiting NY I took the opportunity to visit a few stores such as 5th Avenue (sadly the cube was still boarded up), Grand Central and World Trade. The customer service was fantastic, I really did feel they wanted to help me.
Back in the UK and my nearest store White City, trying to find someone to help is a nightmare, every employee sends you to someone else, and unless you have an appointment booked a week in advance you are sent away.
I tested this while at 5th Avenue and although I looked like an idiot cause there was nothing wrong with my iPhone, they were more than happy to investigate.
Rewind to a few years ago and I don't recall this ever being the case, but sadly its the same be it White City, Covent Garden or Regent Street.
Would be interesting to hear others opinion of these stores, positive or negative.
I couldn't disagree more with Tim's statement that "our relationship with customers is stronger than ever", I have never felt more disconnected with Apple.
With recently visiting NY I took the opportunity to visit a few stores such as 5th Avenue (sadly the cube was still boarded up), Grand Central and World Trade. The customer service was fantastic, I really did feel they wanted to help me.
Back in the UK and my nearest store White City, trying to find someone to help is a nightmare, every employee sends you to someone else, and unless you have an appointment booked a week in advance you are sent away.
I tested this while at 5th Avenue and although I looked like an idiot cause there was nothing wrong with my iPhone, they were more than happy to investigate.
Rewind to a few years ago and I don't recall this ever being the case, but sadly its the same be it White City, Covent Garden or Regent Street.
Would be interesting to hear others opinion of these stores, positive or negative.
Honestly I don’t understand a lot of the comments on here bashing her. Today at Apple is a HUGE success. I would say that it’s drawing even more people to retail and giving people more reasons to go and spend money.
The new store designs are beautiful. The Genius “Grove” might have its issues, but it makes sense why it’s more of a casual free-flowing concept rather than an actual bar.
She seemed like she genuinely cared about connecting with the retail teams.
Maybe she left because she feels she’s done enough and laid a great foundation. She has had an excellent career. Time to relax.
The new store designs are beautiful. The Genius “Grove” might have its issues, but it makes sense why it’s more of a casual free-flowing concept rather than an actual bar.
She seemed like she genuinely cared about connecting with the retail teams.
Maybe she left because she feels she’s done enough and laid a great foundation. She has had an excellent career. Time to relax.
i don't know - shes a cool kid and full of ideas - hence she scored the job - BUT she was a bad fit for apple which is tim apples fault - not hers!
she comes from the bright fashion world - and tim apple wanted that for apple too - all shine but no substance - which again is not her fault!
she comes from the bright fashion world - and tim apple wanted that for apple too - all shine but no substance - which again is not her fault!
Catering to demanding consumers of functionally superior, high tech products at high quality vs serving select wealthy, nothing-to-lose type customersis a HUGE difference. Wealthy super rich high profile customers may not value their products even if it is super expensive as against even high quality products at aspirational price points attract highest critical reviews. Two entirely different planets...IMHO
I do not envy Deidre taking on more duties.
I used to love going to Apple stores, no more. That’s about all I can say concerning Angela, beyond the fact that she is getting out at the right time.
I used to love going to Apple stores, no more. That’s about all I can say concerning Angela, beyond the fact that she is getting out at the right time.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
That would fall under user-friendliness and intuitiveness, wouldn't it?
My recent failings in trying to use an iPad to replace a Mac, coupled with my experience with Android, color my percerception that iOS is currently unintuitive mess.
Thus my theory that the combination of hardware failures, unintuitiveness, and popularity are driving the increased traffic at Apple Stores.
I think they're really poor these days in the UK. Once upon a time i would have said they were something for other retailers to aspire to and I used to enjoy spending a bit of time in them as a respite during those inevitable 'family shopping trips'. These days I might swing by when I'm passing but tend to think 'Why have I come in here' within a few minutes and just drift out.
They seem to have just become nicely furnished but relatively empty phone shops. Computers seem to have been shoved into a corner and accessories (always fun to browse) are much reduced. Slat wall (i know Apple's is posher but you know what I mean) goods all now just seem to be endless iterations of the same phone and iPad cases in different colours.
Staff are mixed - some have been really, really nice, some more like Dixons(!) And having to queue outside the store to return things / sort things is really annoying, particularly when it looks to be not particularly busy inside and with spare members of staff floating about.
Have you seen the stores in London or Paris? Man...
Forget the couple of flagship stores, all the other London ones look like every ordinary Apple store anywhere else.
Criticising someone for a slip of the tongue or speech error is a low act and total nonsense commentary. Everyone makes these errors every now and then, sometimes without any awareness.
Honestly, no. People will have questions no matter how easy it is. People of all ages use iPhones. No matter how simple it is, the 70 year old will still ask.
Glad you've had a better experience with Android (LOL).
Agree. If a company makes a good product that people enjoy and want, it doesn't matter if it's bought online, in a store, at a kiosk, from a checkout line or a random person with a mobile pay device, etc. All the tree additions and bar removals are all about fluff and appearance/fashion/style and creating solutions to issues that weren't really huge issues. Just like iOS 7 cough cough gag cough.
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So iOS 7 was released in 2013, while Ahrendts joined in 2014. Still doesn’t track.
Exactly like Jony Ive removing borders/buttons/defining elements in iOS and unnecessarily changing things that were more direct/obvious into something abstract and just different.
I do think this thread should help many understand one of the "secrets" of life: the value in aging. I'm sure many wish we could stay the same age (like, ~26) forever. Whether it be iOS or Apple Stores, it's just d*mn human nature to dabble and change something, no matter how good it already is. It'd theoretically be possible to leave in place things like: useful "it just works"-feeling UIX elements of iOS pre-iOS7, MacBooks with flexible ports and at least some expandability/servicability, and things like the Apple Store checkout and genius bars...and just update them now and then with replaced parts and minor meaningful refreshenings and updates to correct broken parts and busts/issues/bugs. But nope, can't leave something alone that works pretty great. If we as humans could stay the same physical condition as ~age 26 forever, I'm sure the majority would ruin themselves beyond belief trying to change something they're just tired of. At least with aging, we're forced to prioritize our energies on keeping well the things that are changing/aging beyond our control.
Sometimes, the CEO can appoint a person to a position that ends up not being a good fit, even if they seem like the right choice at first.
I'm trying to think of another instance this happened at Apple, but drawing a blank at the moment.
I’m sure if you stew on it you’ll Cook something up.
Ive got an instance I could suggest that fits that bill, however!
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FOR WHAT?????
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Let's not forget a personal pet peeve of mine that I would love to hear an "iveBS" explanation for.....Why oh why in Itunes do the scolling bars disappear???!!! Why do you have to find the exact magic spot with your cursor before they appear?? WHY WHY WHY!!!!
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.....and visiting the stores is mostly useless anyway......there was a day when we didn't need manuals, somehow we could always figure out how something worked on a Mac! Why? I will "guess" that when shown to Steve he would say THAT'S STUPID! or HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT! Then they would make it work "for the rest of us"!!
For the same reason why the music app went to hide frequently-used music controls out of the way and requiring several taps to appear...and same reason why everything in iOS is so whited/grayed out and vague as to what's an actionable item and what's FYI only, or what’s the controls and what’s the meat of the app (I read somewhere that Sir jIve actually intentionally wanted to reduce the differentiation between the two so as to not “distract the user”...same reason why it's hard at times to discern actionable regions and zones due to the disappearance of bold borders/zones...for the same reason why app design has morphed to a flat interface with large oversize white "buttons" and areas of wasted unused space requiring a lot of scrolling and encouraging away from use-specific interfaces with efficient layouts custom to the experience... It's so as to not "distract the user with unnecessary clutter" as deemed by Jony, and to encourage discovery. Because we all love fumbling while trying to guess and discover how to do something.
Oh and because we're all smarter now and know how to touch glass phones, and we do not need those unnecessary affordances that previously relegated AAPL products as being magically intuitive and full of "it just works"-ness. Because there's a finite number of users in the world who all have by now accommodated themselves to Jony's made-up UIx environment and who will never benefit from intuitive UIx design principles honed on decades of learning. That's why.
Link
That says it all.
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Ah well I suppose that would put a target on any executive's back, but all the same, some of the things for which she was blamed were obviously ridiculous to anyone wishing to employ a semblance of reason.
I would have loved to have seen more intelligent and rational discussion of her failures and successes because I still don't have the clearest idea of what she really controlled vs what she was falsely accused of messing up. There are many forum members who have decades of experience in businesses like Apple's and they sometimes shed some light on the subject. But they were often drowned out by angry customers seeking a scapegoat to vent on who will blame her for things that can't possibly have anything to do with retail, like product design or release dates.
Finally, we are free from "premium" curse that has stuck to Apple for the past few yrs. She was going on the more more premium... more premium ... ultra premium ... path. But thankfully Tim could see where she was wrong.
She communized the Apple retail experience. Everything was centered around the community and not actual paying customers. Starbucks' everyone is welcome to patronize our stores and use our bathrooms (even bums) without buying anything, will also backfire.