Apple is even more isolationists then Trump, why let "outsiders" profit off of Apple's success in any way.
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Apple Resellers and Service Providers Speak Out Following Simply Mac Closures
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So they expect Authorized Service Providers to charge next to nothing for Labour and meanwhile Apple's Mac labour charge went up from $39 to $109 in Canada recently, even for something as simple as a $21 cable or speaker replacement. Utter greed.
I've never paid full price for any Apple product at Best Buy. Don't see that changing. Open Box, coupons, extra negotiated discounts. Never retail.
Yes, ofcourse not every single one of them will be dying, otherwise, whose gonna sell. However, most of those plenty of AASPs if not the range of other brands sell iOS based devices as well. The gloomy picture painted here, are not those but Mac dedicated shops pre-dominantly.
Over the last ten years or so, the market has shifted considerably. Once, Mac users found considerable value in shops that focused on those products, knew how to service them, and provided Mac-centric products in a convenient location. The best of these, in my view, was Tekserve on W. 23d St. in NYC. It was a genuinely cool place that made customers excited to be Mac users. They transitioned pretty well into iPod and iDevices for a while, but their role became much less important once people could find the products they needed online and could get repairs done in Apple stores. And as we all know, nearly all of Apple's products are less repairable today than they once were (a trend generally). The loss of Tekserve and other places is sad in a way, but they simply can't offer what they once could.
It was very sad news when FirstTech closed its door even from a competitor's perspective. Its service side of the business was doing fine but sales were sinking the ship. The expansion at Rochester Mall worsened its financial situation.
I got a lot of Mac customers who used to go to FirstTech. They would chat with me how they refused to go the the Apple Store in Uptown.
i can already see tim cook laughing to the bank to sell his apple stocks
I've bought things at the local Simply Mac store - iPads, laptops and cases on several occasions. But over the past years they carry less and less. I'd guess they are having cash issues so they carry less merchandise and that results in lower sales ETC. The people i dealt with seemed fine overall if a little undertrained. But that's one reaction from one person going to one store over the past 4 or 5 years. But with 3 Apple stores locally it's tough to beat the election and expertise already in this market from Apple.
"Appallingly low margins" indeed. I can attest to this. I used to be a value added Apple reseller. Gross margins were 4% on Apple products for us by the time we called it quits (2010). Margins we way better back in the early 90s (25%). Apple has been squeezing independent dealers for a long time. It's only a matter of time before they all die away I'm afraid.
Make of that what you will.
Make of that what you will.
So, instead of whining figure out if it's worth it and do something else.
That is what they could have done all along, i.e. analyze the business every month and pull the plug when it becomes clear that it doesn't generate enough money or is sustainable.
Overall, its sad see this occur, I've known a number of AASP that have stuck by apple through thick and thin and to be treated this way is unfortunate.
^^^ Totally. My personal view:
Authorized Resellers follow a failed "pilot-fish" business model, where the resellers are left to survive with "leftovers around the host species" (services, sales and repairs by the Apple stores themselves).
Add the penalty of state sales tax, which local, brick-and-mortar resellers of relative low-volume are penalized and out-of-state web-sources are not, then it all spells economic disaster.
The only stores that can survive are those that do add value, which Apple is unwilling to provide. But that game is also ending.
On the hardware side, it used to mean refitting otherwise built-in configurations with higher-end options, not allowed by Apple. This is the model of MacSales.com with OWC-hardware upgrades, but this is also made irrelevant as new apple devices become hardwired or used Apple-proprietary chips.
On the software side, services dedicated to business used to be another source of income for VARs. But did not last long. As Apple turned to consumerism/appliances they eliminated all server-side offerings (in lieu of the cloud), and the leftovers for the "pilot fish" dried out, with no place left to survive.
A sorry state of affairs, as brick-and-mortar business fuel the local economy. Just my view.
Yes, I can see apple wanting to control every aspect of the sales now. AASPS carried them through some pretty lean times now they're kicked to the curb
Given the success of Apple's own retail network, I'm surprised AASPs have survived this long.
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In the case of Best Buy it's because Apple is subsidizing those discounts. I suspect Apple will keep a few strategic relationships in place because it lets them experiment with price points (e.g. the recent $300-off sales on MacBooks) without directly affecting their own retail stores.
My experience with resellers here in Canada are touch-and-go. Some are really good, others are terrible. Some are happy, others are sad. But there is a common feeling that Apple does not make it easy for resellers, through high requirements or strong-armed policies.
Good question and probably not exactly the kind of low value jobs we want. I just wanted to throw it out there since Apple's profit margins are so high, I think they have plenty of margin to pay higher manufacturing costs in the US and still maintain a profit.
I'm saying all this a bit "tongue in cheek", because Apple loves to paint themselves as being this holeyer than thou company who "truly cares" about people and select issues so they can make themselves look good to the public.
The margins are not being squeezed but the volume is. The biggest threat to the reseller is the fact Apple builds mostly all-in-one machines now. That means the reseller has fewer add-on options like extra RAM, PCI cards, etc, that they once had. But the most nimble of the independent resellers has kept its niche advising customers and designing systems appropriate for their business needs. For example, setting up an optimized system for video capture or editing is not simple or quick for something more than a YouTube video. That is where the reseller can and does provide a service that Apple does not.
But for the reseller that just wants to mimic an Apple Store the future is dim as Apple builds out into smaller market cities now that most of the big cities have two or more stores.
While I did notice when working at Simply Mac that the cut Apple gave us was small (relative to some other products we sold, like Otterbox cases and such), I think Simply Mac's problem has more to do with Gamestop's ownership than something Apple changed- as noted above, other Apple resellers are thriving.
Before Gamestop bought the company, Simply Mac stores were all quite profitable- they gave a great customer experience so people kept coming back, even if the margin on Apple products wasn't all that huge. If Simply Mac/Gamestop had kept focusing on that, valued their employees more (sales goals were close to impossible to hit at that store, and even if you did you could never bring home the type of paycheck reps at phone carriers enjoy), and maybe partnered with more carriers than just AT&T (which doesn't work that well where I live anyway), their stores would likely be doing much better.
But nope, Gamestop management was too focused on making a quick buck by selling used computers (up to 5 years old) and charging silly service fees for every little thing we did. It cheapened the store, so people just skipped the place and went straight to Apple, even though it's an hour's drive away- which I can hardly blame them for.
Before Gamestop bought the company, Simply Mac stores were all quite profitable- they gave a great customer experience so people kept coming back, even if the margin on Apple products wasn't all that huge. If Simply Mac/Gamestop had kept focusing on that, valued their employees more (sales goals were close to impossible to hit at that store, and even if you did you could never bring home the type of paycheck reps at phone carriers enjoy), and maybe partnered with more carriers than just AT&T (which doesn't work that well where I live anyway), their stores would likely be doing much better.
But nope, Gamestop management was too focused on making a quick buck by selling used computers (up to 5 years old) and charging silly service fees for every little thing we did. It cheapened the store, so people just skipped the place and went straight to Apple, even though it's an hour's drive away- which I can hardly blame them for.
The reseller we had in my city was top drawer . they continued to get squeezed to the point that they had NO inventory except for demos, which took away from what made them great, in my eye. PLUS, the knowledge at both the sales and service levels put the wannabes at the come-lately Apple Store, to shame. It was a sad, sad day when they dropped out.
Can't speak for the US or Canada, but I really have to say that going to an AASP isn't necessarily the best experience you can get, it's quite a long shot off the experience I hear people getting from Apple Stores and as someone who doesn't live near one you kind of get jealous.
I'd mind all of this less if servicing Apple devices yourself didn't make you jump through a million hurdles and replacement parts (originals) were to be had without being an AASP.
Either way, sounds a lot like YMMV stuff, however I do notice the trend from in-store replacements to fixing a phone in-store as a decommitment from the philosophy of making things as comfortable for the user as possible.
Not AASP-specific though.
Glassed Silver:ios
I'd mind all of this less if servicing Apple devices yourself didn't make you jump through a million hurdles and replacement parts (originals) were to be had without being an AASP.
Either way, sounds a lot like YMMV stuff, however I do notice the trend from in-store replacements to fixing a phone in-store as a decommitment from the philosophy of making things as comfortable for the user as possible.
Not AASP-specific though.
Glassed Silver:ios
Many voters of MI, WI, and PA would say yes and turned the election. This kind of manufacturing was a big part of the election rhetoric as well as Trumps late campaign strategy, one that won the race. Carrier moving to Mexico was mentioned how many times? Car manufacturing... the whole "we don't make anything anymore" line.
Not everyone has or wants a college degree and also manufacturing jobs in the U.S. tend to pay well, even the non-union shops. Unemployment among the lower educated is at a historic high but they want to work. So yes, these are the types of jobs they want to see back. I doubt they would see these jobs as "low value" because they put food on their table and give them a sense of purpose. Moreover, your categorizing it as "low value" seems at odds with the fact people line up for these manufactured products, and compliantly vociferously here when they can't get them -- the AirPods of late.