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Steve Jobs Thought Genius Bar Was 'Idiotic' Idea at First, Said 'It'll Never Work'
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I second this! I hate that Apple Store. I've stopped going there all together. I'll either make the drive to Temecula or Mission Viejo. It's worth it to me. Last month I shattered my iPhone 7 Plus screen and was able to get an appointment at the Temecula Apple Store the same night. Victoria Gardens was booked for a week out. Temecula was a breeze. I was in and out in 10 minutes with a replacement phone.
Can't say I haven't visited the local Genius Bar 2-3 times in the past. Only downside is having to book the visit days in advance. (At least where I live anyway.)
I would agree. The "Genius Bar" itself is not the key to Apple's high customer ratings. It's their focus on customer support. The Genius bar as a concept only works because of Apple's unified customer service approach from phone, online to physical store support. Most people around the world don't have access to the Genius Bar. Those that do, often have inconsistent experiences at the hands of the individual management team, and employees. Whenever I go to the "Genius Bar", there are at least as many angry customers as there are satisfied ones. All things considered, it could have been better implemented without the arrogance of calling these customer service reps geniuses. After all, how much genius does it take to replace someone's malfunctioning device with a new one, which almost always seems to be the solution to any problem I present them with. Occasionally I have to pay for it. The "Genius" is that Apple has now cultivated a customer base who are willing to pay the extra cash upon purchase for the Apple Warranty that allows for the red carpet service customers receive when they reveal they have the added coverage. And that's worth every penny regardless if it's called Genius, Geek, or just plain old Support.
He was right, however it is misnamed in a way other than he expected. There are no geniuses in the Genius Bar, they are sociable people who are semi-technically literate.
"...and over here we have our dongle section. As you can see it takes up 45% of our store as its our most useful product. It really makes everything at Apple work" Steve smiles at the camera ...
The "Pro Section"... made me laugh 
Where is it today
Where is it todayThat was not so genius of him!
Isn't the IMPORTANT take-away that he was willing to change his mind?...
Have you been to a Genius Bar lately? It doesn't work. Getting an appointment is deliberately obfuscated online (and no longer possible in the Apple Store app from what I can tell) and doubly so if you have a Mac that needs help. Want to do a quick drop? Oh, no they don't do those anymore.
I had to wait THREE WEEKS for an available appointment when my iMac was kernel panicking. That's unacceptable.
I had to wait THREE WEEKS for an available appointment when my iMac was kernel panicking. That's unacceptable.
Well, it's true Steve had to be heavily persuaded to open up the iPod and iTMS to PC users, which he originally was adamantly and dead-set against.
As to your second point, as an outsider looking in, there appears to be way too much fragmentation and confusion lately, without the laser-focus of the Apple of yesteryear, but perhaps that is an evolutionary inevitability.
Yet, I sometimes wonder what would have become of the Apple TV, had Steve still been with us.
Good onservation.
If I may be off topic for a moment... i know times change. Consumer electronics evolve rapidly. Consumer tastes and needs change in turn. Yet the desktop PC is still relevant as a productivity tool, despite Apple's vision to replace it.
iMac sales might be declining, as are PC sales in general, but not in enterprise. Apple's customers are primarily consumers now. They rarely create anything except for selfies. The creatives and academics who prefer Apple's hardware and OS are being ignored. Apple's preoccupied with its money cow...the iPhone.
Apple has never sold a lot of PC's, but the Macs are still the most capable and versatile of Apple's hardware products. So far, nothing superior can be produced on an handheld device.
Jobs really was the ring master of Silicon Valley. He knew that geeks have a tendency to get ahead of themselves and turn things into useless fiasco that doesn't end up helping anyone. He was there to ensure pointless never got ahead and also ensured he was the only one with the ego in the room. Even when you were brilliant, you were still d****a** to Steve.
But you missed the point - the average Apple user isn't aware of MacRumors, so it's no use that there's this alternative resource.
The average Apple user just needs a memorable service name to reassure them that there are experts available at the place their bought their computer, who they can go back to for free help.
Steve challenged people to defend their idea in the face of withering criticism. A common debate and persuasion tactic. We know he took calligraphy, but one wonders where he learned debate, management, and marketing.
He also had the vision to understand he could be wrong and went ahead with the idea he didn't like.
Like iTunes for Windows.
Are we really supposed to believe this story? It's here say and Steve Jobs is not even here to dispute it. Kind of silly to even take this story seriously as far as I'm concerned.
That's a silly statement.
The issue is not "who is smarter" in some sense (and don't be so sure of the smarts of Joe Random Internet Commenter...) but who has better support machinery.
The Genius Bar guys have a lot more software and hardware at their disposal for diagnosing problems, they have a lot more tech resources (ie confidential written material) provided by Apple, and don't diminish the importance of seeing a constant stream of problems and thus seeing the patterns in how devices or software fail.
It's also silly to extrapolate from a bad experience in your random home town to the entire world. I'd say I'm substantially more knowledgeable than the "average" MacRumors member, and I have no complaints about the ten or so times I've dealt with Genius Bar folks over the past fifteen years or so. They've always been polite, on at least two occasions they replaced broken hardware (out of warranty, that I expected to pay for) immediately and with no complaints about "user error", and on at least two occasions they fixed SW problems I could not resolve.
Sure, there have also been the hardware that's broken and can't be fixed --- and that's part of life. Sometime hardware dies, and it's simply dead --- fixing is impossible to so expensive it makes no sense.
The impression I get from most of the "I hate the Genius Bar" stories I read (maybe I'm being unfair, but this is the vibe I get from the way the author tells the story, then language style and tone, etc) is that someone tried to lie to the Genius Bar, got caught, and is now pissed off.
You know the sort of thing:
"My phone just stopped working for no reason"
"OK, let's run a diagnostic. Hmm, the liquid detector says it was fully immersed in water yesterday. Does that sound right?"
"What the hell???? Are you accusing me of LYING about my phone falling in the toilet??? I've never been so insulted in my life. All of Twitter shall hear about this outrage."
Agreed, it is lame name! Just buy the tools and buy the parts and get yourself a fairly good ESD safe room and read iFixit.