London Apple Stores Prepping for Summer Olympics

[MacRumors]

Apple is equipping its London Genius Bars with replacement international keyboards for MacBooks and considering stocking new MacBooks with American, Asian and other international keyboards ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics in the city, according to a report from TUAW.

A high-level Apple retail employee here in London told me today that the company is planning to stock its London area retail stores with international replacement MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook keyboards. This way, the retail outlets will have the spare parts on hand should international journalists need a quick turnaround on a damaged laptop.

As my source told me, "London is going to be overrun by an onslaught of journalists when the games begin. We want to be prepared should they need help with their equipment during the time they are here."

TUAW notes that along with the thousands of athletes and other support staff attending the Olympics, more than 10,000 print journalists are expected to be covering the games, along with numerous other bloggers, editors, photographers, videographers along with thousands of tourists -- many of them Mac and iOS users.

The stocking of international keyboards will be important for foreign Mac users coming to the city for the Olympics. Generally, Apple Stores only stock keyboards localized for the country in which the store is located, and international keyboards must be ordered separately. This would be impractical for Mac users covering the games, as time will be of the essence on any repairs.

It is likely that the London-area retail stores will see some of their heaviest traffic ever during the Summer Olympics, and will have extremely high staffing levels to prepare for it. London itself has five Apple Stores, including the Regent Street and Covent Garden flagships.

The 2012 Olympic Summer Games will run from July 27th through August 12th.

Article Link: London Apple Stores Prepping for Summer Olympics

 

[BruceEBonus]

Can I just be the first in here to say that no one else made any comments on this matter .... yet .... ? Thanks!

 

[jlgolson]

Can I just be the first in here to say that no one else made any comments on this matter .... yet .... ? Thanks!

I ALMOST put USA USA USA at the end, but I figured that would be unsporting.

;-)

 

[Shrink]

Whoever is responsible for this action doesn't miss a trick when it comes to marketing.

Smart!

 

[l.w41sh]

I like the brick. It is cool to see something other than all silver.

 

[koobcamuk]

dsoghssad idoahfoid fndisn pa nkif!

Oops, I just remembered I have a Japanese Mac

 

[Timoke6]

I didn't realise the Olympic games are only two and a half months away!

but OT; this is a really smart move from Apple

 

[Navdakilla]

That store will probably drive the q3 earnings into another record breaking quarter.. Hopefully Usain Bolt can break some records too

 

[Meriana]

A wise move.

 

[CFreymarc]

I didn't realise the Olympic games are only two and a half months away!

but OT; this is a really smart move from Apple

Stuff like this shows how they are keeping ahead of the game. Too many marketing types only listens to customers to make product plans and does not look ahead of the crowd.

I once figuratively cut a new hole into one of my marketing directors for not anticipating a major shift in customer demands for a series of networking products. She was only surveying customers and making product plans based on that. Her comments on many board member level recommendations was always, "I don't see that demand from customers."

When I jumped all over for not being ready to ship when this change happens, she lost it and screamed out "What the hell you want me to do read their minds and use a crystal ball or Ouija board?" To that I replied, "Whatever it takes, when you hit this level the mundane and typical does not make you great." She ended up resigning a week later and went to some outfit that sold electrical connectors.

 

[Old Muley]

My parents went to the London Olympics and all they brought me back was this Macbook Pro...

 

[Moonjumper]

I wonder if they will have translators as well for all the non English speaking visitors?

 

[appsforkids]

Beautiful store, so cool they are stocking up and ready to handle any olympic mac emergencies.

 

[saud0488]

Do people really enjoy trying on Mac keyboards? My hands aren't THAT big yet I find typing on a mac to be terrible. Sure facebook and posts like this are fine. But to sit down and actually type a story is mind numblingly terrible for me. I'm a recent college graduate and during my time in college I had to type all of my papers on my old XPS M1330, or a school Dell Desktop. It was that bad for me.

And don't even get me started on spreadsheets....just got my taxes done today and my hands are feeling it.

 

[FrizzleFryBen]

Interesting that it's keyboards that they are stocking. Out of 50+ keyboards in our organization in the last 3 years, only 1 died, and it was for an iMac. Never had a Apple laptop keyboard die or malfunction. Maybe I'm just lucky.

----------

Do people really enjoy trying on Mac keyboards? My hands aren't THAT big yet I find typing on a mac to be terrible. Sure facebook and posts like this are fine. But to sit down and actually type a story is mind numblingly terrible for me. I'm a recent college graduate and during my time in college I had to type all of my papers on my old XPS M1330, or a school Dell Desktop. It was that bad for me.

And don't even get me started on spreadsheets....just got my taxes done today and my hands are feeling it.

You are aware that Macs have full size keyboards right? Sounds like you simply have a preference for clicky keys...there are many of you out there and that's OK. Personally I can't use old Dell keyboards anymore...but that's my preference. I love my chicklet keys and type much faster with less errors.

 

[mac26]

Finally some Mac related news on Macrumors!

 

[Lukeyy19]

No other company would do something like this.

 

[Simplesimon101]

I was sitting on that very bench waiting for replacement key a couple of weeks ago. Weird.

British key though.

 

[amoda]

I would imagine there would be more blown laptop chargers than broken keyboards, but hey being prepared is a good thing. I'm sure Apple saving a journalist's laptop will come in handy some day.

 

[Ingot]

Stuff like this shows how they are keeping ahead of the game. Too many marketing types only listens to customers to make product plans and does not look ahead of the crowd.

I once figuratively cut a new hole into one of my marketing directors for not anticipating a major shift in customer demands for a series of networking products. She was only surveying customers and making product plans based on that. Her comments on many board member level recommendations was always, "I don't see that demand from customers."

When I jumped all over for not being ready to ship when this change happens, she lost it and screamed out "What the hell you want me to do read their minds and use a crystal ball or Ouija board?" To that I replied, "Whatever it takes, when you hit this level the mundane and typical does not make you great." She ended up resigning a week later and went to some outfit that sold electrical connectors.

Good. I don't enjoy people who are not forward thinking. Don't much like slack ass people either. And coming from me is weird because I was once one of those slack people.

 

[Alith]

Well you can't get a Genius appointment inside of a week in London right now so the first thing they need is to employ a hell of a lot more staff if they are going to be fixing anything during the Olympics.

 

[jm1.jonas]

I wonder if they will have translators as well for all the non English speaking visitors?

Who doesn't speak english? All Journalists know how to speak english, they have to, and the other...

Nowadays everyone knows how to speak english, even if its just a tinny bit, and if someone don't speak english i'm sure that they'll be able to understand each other.

I'm Portuguese, and last year i went to Barcelona, and once i don't speak spanish i had to speak english and i only found one couple that didn't understood what i said!

 

[aperantos]

Interesting that it's keyboards that they are stocking. Out of 50+ keyboards in our organization in the last 3 years, only 1 died, and it was for an iMac. Never had a Apple laptop keyboard die or malfunction. Maybe I'm just lucky.

They are stocking everything, but they do not need to order in special touchpads etc. as these are not localized. It is only keyboards where they need to make an extra effort to provide different versions.

 

[iScott428]

This is exactly the kind of customer service you get from Apple, forward thinking and fully prepared. Love it

[/QUOTE]You are aware that Macs have full size keyboards right? Sounds like you simply have a preference for clicky keys...there are many of you out there and that's OK. Personally I can't use old Dell keyboards anymore...but that's my preference. I love my chicklet keys and type much faster with less errors.[/QUOTE]

I had to buy a full sized key board for my work PC for this exact reason, just can not type on those damn PC keyboards and what a waist of energy with such a long key stroke

 

[ECUpirate44]

Finally some Mac related news on Macrumors!

Oh stop it with the Mac stuff. Over half of Apple's revenue is from iOS. Besides, when Macrumors was founded, there was no such thing as iOS. It's an Apple forum, don't put so much stock in the name!