Tim Cook was praised by Steve Jobs as a supply chain genius. He's been dropping the ball on this as CEO. Anticipating demand is very difficult but that's why Tim Cook was considered almost super human in that regard.
"Ahrendts again told employees that the Apple Watch is only available online due to global demand exceeding supply."
How can this happen in only 5 minutes...
"...And the first time we've ever previewed a product two weeks before availability."
What's this supposed to mean? Apple unveiled the Watch like 6 months ago.
I think the difference is in the customizability. You buy an iPhone, it's pretty straight forward. You buy a mac, you add ram and up the HD but still pretty standard. Here you have to try it on, get the right size, right color etc. When I went in, I thought my wife was going to want the silver with white band. She tried it on and immediately hated it. She wanted the black on black so this saved me from returning it. I think that's what they are trying to avoid. A whole bunch or returns.
saving face for such a blunder of a launch.
We didn't mind the lines, we didn't mind the low supply, it was at least consistent and we knew what to expect. This? This is madness.
Tim Cook was praised by Steve Jobs as a supply chain genius. He's been dropping the ball on this as CEO. Anticipating demand is very difficult but that's why Tim Cook was considered almost super human in that regard.
Durrrr... Previewed as in, you get to walk in and put hands onto the product weeks prior to delivery. You could cancel the order even before getting the product..
How is this a blunder? Apple has always faced extreme demand pressures with new product launches. Even iPhones are still constrained when the new revision comes out, and that's there most successful product.
Stores are far less efficient than online ordering, so it makes sense when faced with constrained supply to deal with it that way.
saving face for such a blunder of a launch.
We didn't mind the lines, we didn't mind the low supply, it was at least consistent and we knew what to expect. This? This is madness.
"unforgettable launch"
That's true alright. People trying on watches they had purchased on-line the night before by staying up until 3am and hitting refresh and praying?
How is that personally guiding anyone the day AFTER they've bought it before seeing it or trying it on?
Video was missing several key phrases:
"We're sorry"
"We messed up"
"We're trying our best to catch up with demand"
saving face for such a blunder of a launch.
We didn't mind the lines, we didn't mind the low supply, it was at least consistent and we knew what to expect. This? This is madness.
Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how you run the multi billion dollar business after Tim.
You can't even begin to imagine the scale of his responsibilities. Back Seat CEOs, all of you.
How is this a blunder? Apple has always faced extreme demand pressures with new product launches. Even iPhones are still constrained when the new revision comes out, and that's there most successful product.
Stores are far less efficient than online ordering, so it makes sense when faced with constrained supply to deal with it that way.
the problem was that pre-orders started before you could 'preview' them in-store, this means people had to order several watches because they weren't sure which one they wanted till they tried them on.
would have been MUCH more efficient, and saved a lot of cancellations/returns if they'd started previews a week before pre-orders.
blablabla anyone with half a brain can do the job. He's a manager, not an entrepeneur. The difference is when I screw up I get a kick in the nuts, while his like get a golden parachute. So much for responsibility.
So far I've been extremely positive about Angela Ahrendts because she is doing good job at managing the retail.
She has already brought in a lot of her industry experience and has done the great job at exposing herself to the retail staff, which is required for a position such as this one.
A lot of people are giving grief because they're not getting their devices on launch day, but I hate to say that she is not responsible for overwhelming demand.
A lot of people forget she was partially responsible for the turn around and salvation of Burberry, which has once again started shift the high end fashion industry's direction
How many companies sell millions of products at launch and get them shipped to arrive at their destinations around the world all on the same day. I don't know of any company that has consistently gotten products in the right hands on day 1.
Have they made too little of each product each launch, yes but the entire Android watch market has sold a fraction of what is being shipped in the next few days.
What companies can take millions of orders of anything in one day?