I hope the iPhone "experts" are better than the Nano "experts" who think the Nike + Sport Kit are not needed with the 5G. All flash, no substance. It will catch up.
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Apple Retail Stores to Gain Dedicated iPhone Activation Areas and Staff?
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LOL.
I live in Sydney (Australia) where Apple last year opened one of its biggest retail stores on 3 levels.
Ground floor: about 80 macs, mainly notebooks, mostly occupied by backpackers checking their email. An iphone / ipod touch sitting beside each computer. Retail sales at each end.
First floor: one end, ipod/iphone accessories. very overcrowded. other end, hard drives, software, printers, bags. No one down there. Middle (70% of the floor) about 100 iphones/ipod touches on display. A few sales guys with portable credit card machines selling stuff.
iphones are not tied to any carrier in australia, so just walk in and buy the phone in as little time as it takes to hand over your credit card. on new releases (eg 3gs) they usually cordon off a small area of the store for those who want to sign up for a plan with a telco.
Second floor: One on one workstations at each end... total about 20 imacs fully loaded with heaps of software... usually a few stations free to play around with software. Also four kids entertainment imac stations...
middle 70%... genius bar. About 14 geniuses... only problem is having to book online three days in advance to see one.
I've known people to convert from pc to mac just because of the apple store experience with their ipod.
Last I heard, Apple Corp has more than $20 billion in cash in the bank and no debt. I think it's already made quite a bit of money.
But as an enterprise, Apple is worth much more than just the cash in the bank. On the NYSE, investors think AAPL is worth $155 billion!
Exactly. Apple has always prided itself on its products requiring zero expertise to set up. Just make the iPhone multi-carrier and eliminate the whole stupid activation requirement which seems to have ever increasing costs associated with it: long waits for activation, having to hire extra people to perform activation, unable to sell directly through internet Apple Store, etc...
Seems like a good idea, prior to the launch of the 3GS. Too bad they didn't have it done in prior to that. Maybe they are gearing up to allow Verizon to use the iPhone? Only one can hope. 
Maybe the rush is over in major markets but...
I'm on vacation with my wife in Cape Cod. Her iPhone stopped charging & we needed a replacement. I called & the Apple stores in Cambridge & Boston had 24+ hour wait times for the genius bars. We went into an AT&T store in the Hyannis mall, there was a 30 minute wait with the 4 employees talking to new/prospective iPhone users.
The iPhone is still HOT & needs dedicated support.
Yeah, they have that. It's called "Mac Express" and most of the time it's you going to the register and getting what you want. Just ask.
Apple changed it's name in 2007 from "Apple Computer Company" to Apple Incorporated" because of everything else they sell. It's to broaden the brand, not have specific "iPhone stores".
I hope this means that there will be more 'genius' reps specifically dealing with iPhone queries. I find that my local apple store (glasgow) has at least a two-three day wait to see a genius - sometimes even more.
actually they did this in many stores for the initial release. at least in the 3 I frequent in LA they did. worked very nicely so they brought it back as a full time feature
hardly. the one time i was in an ATT store it was all about getting me to get a bigger phone, larger plan and forget about showing me anything about using the phone. they wanted me to sign and get out so they could ring the next person.
more like they are doing it cause they figure phones might be a hot holiday item.
two different worlds. the Geniuses are tech support. these Experts aren't fixing your phone, they are selling you one. and setting it up so you can use it.
i was in my most local store today and it was actually rather nice. they had signs up so you knew right where to go. folks wanting computers didn't have to wait while all 10 sales folks were ringing up and setting up phones. the phone folks did the account set up, someone brings out the phone. it is sold, they are watching a video about how to get started with the controls blah blah.
blame that on ATT. they wanted the in store activation so they could get names and numbers in the system to have the contract and the right to charge an ETF when you cut service to unlock it and use it on t-mobile. they couldn't do that the first time around cause you never signed up
look at it on the flip. would you want some guy that works in the stock room and was trained on how to ring sales 2 years ago handling your phone activation. totally screwing it up so now you have no working phone, you have to spend 4 hours on the phone with ATT who tells you that you have lost your phone number and they can't get it back cause it's locked in some sub-sub-sub routine so you will have to either wait 2 weeks to hopefully get it back or change numbers.
yes it sucks when the staff are all busy but personally I would rather someone admit they aren't trained to do sales than give it a whirl and F me up for hours when something gets messed up. especially when it is my phone
also this dedicated area is probably because they were listening. yes you might have to wait while the one or two folks in that area are working with someone but at least they will see you there and you don't have to leap frog around from person to person to hear "i already have someone else waiting for my help. after them I can help you" ten times only to spy someone available on the other end of the store who is taken by the time you get there.
i shop at 3 stores here in LA, including what is apparently one of the flagship stores and I have never had a truly terrible experience. of course even the best companies have a few bad eggs, but they are rarely to never indicative of the whole company
you probably won't be complaining when you want, and receive one person's undivided attention
you are probably pretty close to the truth
but they aren't. from what I saw today and what I heard from the staff no one is being hired just to sell phones. all the experts are from existing staff. people who have paid attention and learned the details etc. they take turns in the area, spending maybe half a day there and the rest selling computers
i'm not shocked that they don't carry blank discs, printer ink etc. the prices were horrid. clearly they didn't sell enough to warrant the kind of big buys that would get them a decent discount and put their prices in line with the office supply shops. so they stopped trying
it's simple math. they are selling, the companies are paying to get their stuff on the racks. for Apple it is a win
They've already done this in some of the Canadian Apple Stores there is one bay of iMacs that are preloaded with Parallels and have handheld scanners to scan in serial numbers and IMEIS, the Rogers/Fido sales system works in IE only. They have stools setup there, and on days with lots of activations going on at once they will cordon off the area. Having more people dedicated to selling iphones would be a good idea up here. As of right now the Apple store is the ONLY place to buy an iphone as most other outlets are sold out. In addition most Apple stores will only sell you the phone if you have an appointment or are paying full price for the phone; appointments are also hard to come by you need to book a week in advance. Also, the Rogers/Fido activation system is the worst system ever, certain activations/upgrades will take up to 3 hours.
The iPhone experts don't fix stuff, they are to help people get iPhones and help people with iPhone questions. The Family Room Specialists are the addition to the genius bar that help specifically with iPods and iPhones, as far as repairs go.
Hate having to wait?
If you hate having to wait for someone at the store to help you then book a personal shopping appointment and there will be a specialist waiting for you at the door. its a 1 hour appointment and its much easier to book one on the same day that you want to come in.
http://www.apple.com/retail/personalshopping/
check it out
If you hate having to wait for someone at the store to help you then book a personal shopping appointment and there will be a specialist waiting for you at the door. its a 1 hour appointment and its much easier to book one on the same day that you want to come in.
http://www.apple.com/retail/personalshopping/
check it out
Yeah, this is what I thought. Either they are a little late, or very early.
Hoping very early.
I think it's just another way of saying that they're not too fond of AT&T anymore. Perhaps they're saying, "you're treating our current and future Apple customers like crap by pulling shenanigans like ramming accessories and add-on plans down their throat when we don't need to do that. Or by pushing a BlackBerry or some Nokia/Samsung junk when you don't have iPhones in stock at the time."
Or, this could be a collaboration by executives at AT&T since they don't have to give any commissions for iPhones and activation done in Apple stores. Just another way of solidifying their ability to stick it to their own employees who need the money.
Or, this could be a collaboration by executives at AT&T since they don't have to give any commissions for iPhones and activation done in Apple stores. Just another way of solidifying their ability to stick it to their own employees who need the money.
the apple store buying experience is probably the best I've experience in any brick and mortar store.
with that said...
i find that whenever i go to an apple store and i know exactly what i want and i need help, it takes a while to get help.
but when i go just to look around, i get a little hackled (just a little) asking if I need to be helped.
with that said...
i find that whenever i go to an apple store and i know exactly what i want and i need help, it takes a while to get help.
but when i go just to look around, i get a little hackled (just a little) asking if I need to be helped.
we will see about that. i'm pretty sure people will gladly still purchase Nike+
This must be why the only Apple retail store in Indiana is closed for renovations.
I agree the buying experience at the Apple stores could be improved. I miss the dedicated counter especially when I am buying an accessory. It was refreshing to go to the flagship store in Chicago and get in line to buy a case for my macbook. I also hate to try and grab the attention of the geniuses and standing in front of products others want to look at. It doesn't help that it the Indianapolis Keystone retail store is the only one in the state. It is always packed with "browsers".
I will say the experience with buying my iphone at an AT&T store (which I was trying to avoid) was rather painless. It took me longer to decide if I wanted a 16 or 32 GB than to buy and activate the phone.
Also, buying my macbook (on Black Friday no less) was a quick stop. I only had to come back 20 minutes later to pick it up after my RAM upgrade.
I agree the buying experience at the Apple stores could be improved. I miss the dedicated counter especially when I am buying an accessory. It was refreshing to go to the flagship store in Chicago and get in line to buy a case for my macbook. I also hate to try and grab the attention of the geniuses and standing in front of products others want to look at. It doesn't help that it the Indianapolis Keystone retail store is the only one in the state. It is always packed with "browsers".
I will say the experience with buying my iphone at an AT&T store (which I was trying to avoid) was rather painless. It took me longer to decide if I wanted a 16 or 32 GB than to buy and activate the phone.
Also, buying my macbook (on Black Friday no less) was a quick stop. I only had to come back 20 minutes later to pick it up after my RAM upgrade.
Not quite. It may be one reason, but not the main. Our local apple store was closed for around a month while they remodeled. when they reopned nothing much changed. ipods/iphones and macs remained in the same spot. The Genius bar was moved to the back instead of the side (the kids section moved where the genius bar was) and I think the glass panels remained. all of that could have been done over night.