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Apple's Online Store Now Available in Chile
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Just hope Apple starts to offer authorized service in Chile too, but unlike what they do in Brazil, with a good quality of service.
As someone who buys a lot of Apple gear both for personal and company use, I am a bit dissapointed they did not bring their recycling program. We hace computers from 10+ years ago; many of them we try to repurpose and gift away, but some just are not useful anymore. It is a pain to remember to pack a computer when traveling to the US in order to recycle (There are no real good options here).
Other thing I was looking forward was the expansion of their Online Services, such as MLB+ and maybe Fitness+. Didn’t happen either.
Honestly, all the Apple Store brings to the table is the ability to customize your computers, in order to add more Ram or a bigger SSD. Everything else was easily done through authorized resellers.
EDIT: my bad. hidden in the trade in program I found the recycling part, though I do not yet know how to do it. Yay!
Other thing I was looking forward was the expansion of their Online Services, such as MLB+ and maybe Fitness+. Didn’t happen either.
Honestly, all the Apple Store brings to the table is the ability to customize your computers, in order to add more Ram or a bigger SSD. Everything else was easily done through authorized resellers.
EDIT: my bad. hidden in the trade in program I found the recycling part, though I do not yet know how to do it. Yay!
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Perhaps you also got an education store / discount program for students, teachers, etc. along a business store?
Those can shave off around 10-15% of the price, and, you might also get the "back to school" promotion next (don't know how the school year works in Chile), in Mexico we got free airpods along the said discount for students....
I was hoping for that! Education i cannot vouch (but there have always existed education discounts through third party resellers, do not know the details) but regarding businesses, I tried to configure Macs on the Businessstore and came up with the same prices as the regular store. There might be something I am not seeing though.
Still, I now think the official store does make a positive impact, if just for the recycling program and the trade ins (will save us companies with tons of old macs a lot of money)
Great news. As a fact, high end Macs, iPhones and other devices are slightly cheaper in the official store (about USD 50 or 100 less) than the previous resellers.
The problem is the shipping times (lot of days, even weeks). But I think this is the same in other countries.
Fun fact: Microsoft never launched a Surface line product since their debut in 2012. Never. Not only in Chile, but also in all latin-american countries. They 'fans' constantly complain about market share that actually made fall they products (like the Surface Duo phone), but they ignore an entire continent with millions of potential buyers
Instead, Apple, even with resellers, have their entire lineup of products and services in Chile since more than a decade, with full support. Samsung and other brands also have official presence. You can't buy any Surface Pro here, even the cheapest one, but you can buy an iPad Pro M2, with a Magic Keyboard, in spanish-latinamerican layout, with a pencil and even with your favourite dongle, on a nice Mac-styled store three or four blocks from here in a Mall.
You can even buy a HomePod here, with same-day shipping.
The problem is the shipping times (lot of days, even weeks). But I think this is the same in other countries.
Fun fact: Microsoft never launched a Surface line product since their debut in 2012. Never. Not only in Chile, but also in all latin-american countries. They 'fans' constantly complain about market share that actually made fall they products (like the Surface Duo phone), but they ignore an entire continent with millions of potential buyers
Instead, Apple, even with resellers, have their entire lineup of products and services in Chile since more than a decade, with full support. Samsung and other brands also have official presence. You can't buy any Surface Pro here, even the cheapest one, but you can buy an iPad Pro M2, with a Magic Keyboard, in spanish-latinamerican layout, with a pencil and even with your favourite dongle, on a nice Mac-styled store three or four blocks from here in a Mall.
You can even buy a HomePod here, with same-day shipping.
I didn't realize till now that Apple can be present in a country by only making its online store available. Is this to test the waters and eventually open a physical store, or is that not the case? I wonder what makes them start first the online presence before a physical one that naturally receives more publicity etc. Is there other countries where this has happened?
Really? I configured a couple of Macs that I usually buy and came up with the exact same prices as on Maconline (biggest reseller).
Maybe I just didn't look for the right ones, like Mac Studio or Mac Pro.
Official Apple Stores are quite rare outside the US and a few European countries, even those, might just have a few, not even close to the quite large reseller network or the ubiquity of Apple Stores in major US cities.
There are a lot of countries with an Online Store but no physical Apple Store presence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store#Countries_and_regions
For example, Ireland and Portugal have no Apple Stores even though they have had an Online stores for several years.
Mexico and Brazil, had Online Stores for more than a decade and have now just two Apple Stores each, etc.
Physical Apple Stores appear in cities that can support their volume of sales.
It is like Starbucks during the 1st decade of international expansion.
We have a very good situation compared to our neighbors, but Chile is still far from being a fully developed country like Europeans for example.
And the last three years have been with an important social-political instability and economic uncertainty due to the pandemic and inequity. Fortunately now the things are a little better.
Apple Pay is available since August.
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