Europe's Largest Apple Museum Opens in the Netherlands With 50 Years of Products on Display

[Jeeve Stubbs]

as interesting as this most likely is, I keep wondering why people/cities/communities/whatever feel the need to open up museums in locations which have no connection to the subject at all. The same thing applies to random celebrity statues (I mean, WHY is there a Charlie Chaplin statue in Bulgaria, of all places).

Because their popularity isn't limited to their country of origin. In fact, several famous people, entities, or works of art have had more success abroad than at home (too many examples to mention).

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

I really hope this museum has a few things on display focusing on one of Apple’s three founders, Ronald Wayne. Tim Cook is so clueless and mediocre that he didn’t even mention the cofounder Wayne on the 50th anniversary celebration of Apple’s founding. Wayne is the one who, among other important things, typed up Apple’s founding documents which legally and officially established Apple as a company on April 1, 1976. Is Cook really too stupid to understand that is the day and event that the 50th anniversary celebration should be celebrating?

Hey Tim, you mediocre hack, it is Ronald Wayne who is a founder of Apple, not any of the celebrity musicians you invited.

Big deal. The guy sold his shares in a matter of days. Tim saw no reason to give undeserved publicity to someone who didn't believe in Apple and contributed almost nothing to it.

 

[JohnC1959]

I remember seeing the ads for the Apple II when it came out. I really wanted one but the price was way high for me.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

I like the rainbow iMac G3 wall, but where are the Blue Dalmation and Flower Power designs??

 

[groove-agent]

That would be super cool.

 

[bsolar]

This museum is clearly being positioned as a “for profit” business, not a charity or for the betterment of humanity.

The Apple Museum is a stichting:

A stichting is a Dutch legal entity with limited liability, not aiming to make profit, with no members or share capital, that exists for a specific purpose that is serving a public, social or an idealistic interest. A stichting is allowed to make profit but the legal condition is that this profit must be spent on achieving the foundation's goals.

 

[jurmous]

For those curious, check out the center of Utrecht on photos or YouTube videos. It is a lovely big city to visit which has a more authentic feel than nearby touristic Amsterdam.

And if you want to understand the Dutch car is optional lifestyle, see videos from “Not just bikes” and you likely want to live here.

Utrecht is part of a city network of multiple closeby well interconnected cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam called the Randstad. (See a map of Europe by night how closeby all these cities are) So that maybe explains why the museum could be successful there.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

But is this authorized by Apple? Otherwise, Apple Lawyers would like a word with them. 🧑‍💼👩‍💼👨‍💼🕴️

Why you think that anything shown has to be authorized? Still a free world. At least in most parts of Europe.

 

[Happy_John]

The Apple Museum is a stichting:

Yes, it's the equivalent of a foundation. It can make a profit, and it can pay employees. It's a business venture.

 

[GroningenNL]

Unfortunately, the previous Apple Museum in beautiful Orvelte closed due to staff shortages, rising costs, and so on. Fortunately, it has been preserved and now has a magnificent new home.

 

[bsolar]

Yes, it's the equivalent of a foundation. It can make a profit, and it can pay employees. It's a business venture.

It can make a profit but must reinvest it to further the foundation's goals, which must be of public or social interests in nature.

A business venture has no such limitations and its goal is typically the financial interest of the owners.

Most non-profit foundations do have employees and do try to generate a "profit" that they can use to pay expenses and reinvest in the foundation's goals. That does not make them "business ventures".

 

[Big_D]

That would actually be cool to see

Yes, I might pop over one Saturday and take a look. It is only about 2.5 hours away.

 

[svish]

Looks like a really nice place especially the iMac G3 area. That looks great!

 

[Happy_John]

It can make a profit but must reinvest it to further the foundation's goals, which must be of public or social interests in nature.

A business venture has no such limitations and its goal is typically the financial interest of the owners.

Most non-profit foundations do have employees and do try to generate a "profit" that they can use to pay expenses and reinvest in the foundation's goals. That does not make them "business ventures".

Ye. I'm not sayin git is in anyway untoward, but it's simply a business entity descriptor, in the same way way that OpenAI is not a "for profit" business. NGOs, Charities, Religions, Foundations are descriptors. The is a difference between a "National museum" and a "museum". There's a difference between a "public library" and a "library".

The aim is still to be sustainable, ie, to generate revenue equal to or more than the running costs.

 

[TechRunner]

I like museums in general and would be interested in touring this one. Sadly, the Netherlands isn't on any of my future travel itineraries. Those who do get to go, enjoy it!

 

[Powerbooky]

To be fair, for European prices, 21 Euro ( no -s on Euro ) is not particularly expensive, but it’s not particularly cheap either.

This museum is clearly being positioned as a “for profit” business, not a charity or for the betterment of humanity. In that way it’s a good reflection of its subject matter.

That’s not to say anything negative about it, and the best of luck to the founder, which, for him, I’m sure is a labour of love, and his backers, but let’s call a spade a spade.

Actually, it's a non-profit organisation according to their own website. "The Wall" had quite some units still empty for a long time, so they maybe got a good deal too. And look at some of their sponsors.

 

[Happy_John]

Actually, it's a non-profit organisation according to their own website. "The Wall" had quite some units still empty for a long time, so they maybe got a good deal too. And look at some of their sponsors.

Again, I think you're missing my point. It's not a case of "Non-Profit" + Good, "Business =Bad".

It seem that this is a business venture wehere someone can make a living out of what they love. That's great. That it is classified as a "non-profit" / stichtling means he has a good accountant or business advisor, or knows his ways round this himself, and so has registered this undertaking / entity under the most advantageous category for it.

If it provides a good experience for the visitors / customers, then they're happy to have paid the entrance . You can say the same about a restaurant without having to claim the raestaurant is somehow "not tainted by business".

But the restaurant and the museum are offering and experience that is paid for by the customer. Nothing wrong there. But it's not in any way a public service. Both are part of the hospitality / entertainment industry.

I haven't at any point suggested that this is dishonest or not above-board in any way. It's not. But it is how these things work.

Registering as a stichtling is not in itself a moral or immoral decision. It's a pragmatic one.

 

[Powerbooky]

I remember seeing the ads for the Apple II when it came out. I really wanted one but the price was way high for me.

Although I never saw the ads on TV, I did see a Apple II at someone's house and occasionally me and my class mate were allowed to play on it. Man... the hours we spent on typing hex-codes from a game magazine.
Good nerd times.

 

[Vistaus]

To be fair, for European prices, 21 Euro ( no -s on Euro ) is not particularly expensive, but it’s not particularly cheap either.

This museum is clearly being positioned as a “for profit” business, not a charity or for the betterment of humanity. In that way it’s a good reflection of its subject matter.

That’s not to say anything negative about it, and the best of luck to the founder, which, for him, I’m sure is a labour of love, and his backers, but let’s call a spade a spade.

Aside from the non-profit status which others have corrected you about, I don't think it's fair to compare the fare of this museum to fares of other European museums. I mean: sure, Utrecht is part of the Netherlands and therefor part of Europe, but all countries in Europe are independent rather than one large state. So I think it would be more fair to compare it to other museums in the Netherlands, and compared to them, especially ones that are similarly sized, this museum actually relatively cheap. Most museums here in the Netherlands of this size are (a lot) more expensive. So for its size, I'd say it *is* cheap.

 

[Steves Padawan]

Thats best thing happened in Netherlands since the original Netherlands

 

[PiedMyPants]

We have ‘Museum-yearcard’ (75 euro p/y) in the netherlands which allow you to visit any museum with no additional charge, very convenient to have a coffee in the morning looking at an art exhibition or Rembrandt. There is no ticket option for this, so to me its not a museum or connected to them. Should this not come for free by showing your Apple Creative Studio subscription..

 

[Burebista]

To be fair, for European prices, 21 Euro ( no -s on Euro ) is not particularly expensive, but it’s not particularly cheap either.

This museum is clearly being positioned as a “for profit” business, not a charity or for the betterment of humanity. In that way it’s a good reflection of its subject matter.

That’s not to say anything negative about it, and the best of luck to the founder, which, for him, I’m sure is a labour of love, and his backers, but let’s call a spade a spade.

Yeah, €21 is about what you would pay for the top tier art museums in the capital where you could spend the whole day and still not see everything.

A normal museum in a provincial town like that would cost around 7-10€. So this one is actually for profit.

 

[Alex.ne]

There used to be a computer museum with tons of Apple stuff on the top of the Grande Arche in La Defense, Paris, so sad they closed it with the Arch's roof after one of the elevators collapsed (like 20 years ago).

 

[zxski]

This museum is clearly being positioned as a “for profit” business, not a charity or for the betterment of humanity. In that way it’s a good reflection of its subject matter.

Well actuallyyyyyy it is run by a non-profit which has an official ANBI status (the Dutch version of a tax-exempt charity) so it is a public benefit organisation (PBO).

Info: https://applemuseum.nl/anbi/

 

[CalmCruiser]

It’s great! Been there this morning and it was so nice. They really have an excellent selection of Macs and Mac goodie’s. Highly recommended  ❤️

Me, looking great! 😂