Tim Cook's Plan to Sell More iPhones in Apple Stores Could Be Tough Task

[appleisking]

Nice burn!

I'm glad you don't mind paying for service that can't be rendered.
Isn't that the whole point of buying/owning an Apple device? The experience?
I would imagine that would also apply to the buying experience as well?
Maybe Apples problem is they don't staff enough employee's.
Maybe they need to open Apple Retail and Apple Service? You gotta keep them separated!

What service that can't be rendered? They don't come to you in 5 minutes? The only reason I would believe that claim is if it's busy, which as a human being I understand is a possibility, so I search around for a min or 2 for a free blue shirt and I'm set.

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There's an iPhone/Apple store experience?

They hand you a white box you hand them plastic.

or paper

 

[tech4all]

They assume the Verizon and AT&T stores are the place to go, but when they do go, the sales reps push them to Android.

Get off the Apple kool aid. I was a iPhone fanboy myself, and was shown all options when buying my first smartphone by a friend of mind. He was very objective and gave the benefits of all phones, iOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry. I was biased for iOS, but had to face it, Android offered a lot more for me. I gave it a few days and got the Android phone.

I hated to admit it, but Android was so much more robust than iOS and still is IMO.

There's an iPhone/Apple store experience?

They hand you a white box you hand them plastic.

But it has the Apple logo on it!

lol

 

[Oldfash33]

Shouldn't have to wait 45 minutes to get service in any store...

Image

Lol!!!

 

[JGowan]

Have you ever considered why they push them to Android phones? What makes you think the sales rep are obligated to push a stale design? Because it's Apple? Not everyone froths at the mouth over the iPhone like so many people here.

So very WRONG. The reason is because the customer will be entitled to a free phone with contract. The iPhone costs the carrier more than the other phones. Also, from what I understand, there are commissions paid to the carrier for getting customers into various phones. Apple doesn't do this. I could be wrong or partially wrong on the last part (kindly (KINDLY) correct me if I am), but I am certain that they iPhones are more expensive for the carriers to eat.

 

[appleisking]

Get off the Apple kool aid. I was a iPhone fanboy myself, and was shown all options when buying my first smartphone by a friend of mind. He was very objective and gave the benefits of all phones, iOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry. I was biased for iOS, but had to face it, Android offered a lot more for me. I gave it a few days and got the Android phone.

I hated to admit it, but Android was so much robust that iOS and still is IMO.

Don't believe that's why the sales reps are doing that. If they got more commission for selling an iphone because the store profited more from iphone (which they don't), they'd be down-playing android and pushing everyone to iphone. This is not an ios vs android thing.

 

[TWSS37]

Not to mention that many of us think Android has basically looked the same since the beginning, so that must be stale too, no? It's so silly to even discuss this as it's subjective. Hello, both OS(s) work the same way and look very similar.

I'd suggest points for originality go to MS with it's Metro design. That's the freshest.

You think Android 3/4.x looks like 1.x or 2.x? Were you comparing the two with your eyes closed or just with a closed mind?

 

[jonAppleSeed]

What service that can't be rendered? They don't come to you in 5 minutes? The only reason I would believe that claim is if it's busy, which as a human being I understand is a possibility, so I search around for a min or 2 for a free blue shirt and I'm set.

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or paper

A magical buying experience which would be good sales service.

And if you've ever shopped at a mall, you'd know that there are more than 9000 kiosks and carrier stores you can stop at.

 

[TWSS37]

Really. You can get an iphone in 5 minutes? I'd like to see that.

He said 'get service' not complete the transaction.

 

[Essex711]

Being a former Data Analysis, this chart is horrific. Why must people be so incompetent and make ****** charts.

 

[kimble3]

Have you ever considered why they push them to Android phones? What makes you think the sales rep are obligated to push a stale design? Because it's Apple? Not everyone froths at the mouth over the iPhone like so many people here.

One of the biggest reason is because Samsung offers incentives directly to the salespeople to push their phones. The consider this a marketing cost.

 

[TWSS37]

I've got friends and family who are sales reps for Verizon, and I can tell you unequivocally that, while in some instances that might be true (taking personal bias into account), mostly it's just factually inaccurate.

The corporate Verizon stores have a model they work off of that ensures, be it a free crap phone or a premier phone, they still make a set amount of money. It makes no sense for the corporate stores to demand that reps sell a specific phone over another.

That's where personal bias comes in a little, though. A sales rep might, in the past, have seen an iPhone 4S and said "It's a great phone, but it's not an LTE phone so it's a little outdated tech wise. Plus there are other phones with better battery life, bigger screens, etc."

What you're saying is true to an extent, but it's not even half the story.

Thank you for blending facts with logic and reason.

Some people on this board cannot compute that it's actually possible a sales rep would recommend a non-iPhone device for any other reason than a higher commission.

 

[TouchMint.com]

Simple. Charge less at apple store and most supply goes to apple store.

 

[AppleWarMachine]

I think the thing that could make it happen is if they came out with the rumored trade-in program. Imagine if you could go into an Apple store and just swap out your old iPhone for a current generation iPhone. The customer wins because they get the latest phone possibly even before their subsidized phone is eligible for upgrade. Apple wins because they can refurbish the phone and resell it in other countries fulfilling the role of a low-cost phone that everybody wants. Everybody wins.

I totally agree with this, I will be swapping out my 4S with the 5S when it comes out

 

[TWSS37]

Often the Rep's in these places are the geeky type, preferring the customization of Android and freaked out about Apple's walled garden and go on and on about it, selfish to their thoughts and perhaps not best for a particular or average consumer ...

You... you actually believe this?

 

[mono1980]

Seems like Apple should start opening smaller stores in smaller markets. Lansing, Michigan, please.

 

[boccabella]

I went in to an Apple store to buy an iPhone (unlocked) without activating service of any sort and it literally took me 45 minutes. First I had to wait for someone to help me, then I had to wait for them to get someone to get the product, then I had to wait to get the product, then when I got the product they had to open it and activate it. They literally could have just handed me a phone and been done with it but yet it was instead the worst experience I have ever had in a store just due to the amount of time it took to do something so simple

Is sounds like they were out of stock of the factory unlocked phone and had to configure the AT&T model for you.

 

[nepalisherpa]

Think. It's all business deals. If Apple undercuts your price, and steals your sales, why would you ever make a deal with them again. When they make these deals companies like AT&T make sure Apple can't undercut them. Otherwise we'd see Apple selling the phone cheaper for a long time now, and they'd have the highest place on that chart. So Apple has to come up with other ways to get sales.

No matter what ways they come up with, they have to provide some kind of "extra" benefit to the customers. If I get no "extra" benefit, I might as well just go to AT&T's store that is 5 minutes from my house.

 

[Illicit]

I went in to an Apple store to buy an iPhone (unlocked) without activating service of any sort and it literally took me 45 minutes. First I had to wait for someone to help me, then I had to wait for them to get someone to get the product, then I had to wait to get the product, then when I got the product they had to open it and activate it. They literally could have just handed me a phone and been done with it but yet it was instead the worst experience I have ever had in a store just due to the amount of time it took to do something so simple

i had the complete opposite experience purchasing an unlocked phone at an apple store. i already knew ahead of time i wanted an unlocked iphone for t-mobile.

i went on the apple website and booked an appointment with a genius and stated specifically in the comments what my purpose was - to purchase a 16GB black iphone. i went into the store at the specified time, met with the specialist who already had it ready, paid and left with the phone in less than 5 minutes.

i then went through the mall to the t-mobile carrier and signed up for a prepaid plan. waiting in line at the carrier took 20 minutes and signing up for the plan took 5 minutes.

i spent less time purchasing an iphone in store than i spent at the carrier. i think it came down to communicating exactly what i wanted beforehand in addition to not wasting time being a snob regarding microscopic scratches on a new phone.

 

[ChrisCW11]

Just make automated kiosks.

I mean really, there is no need for salesperson involvement to buy a phone anymore in the 21st century.

I really don't understand the hand holding many consumers believe they need when buying a phone.

Its not rocket science, its a phone. Pick a platform, if you don't know what platform to get (Android, iOS, Microsoft, Blackberry), then just buy an iPhone. Apple has the best marketplace of any of them and the average user wants to play Angry Birds on a phone without having to find out their platform doesn't have the version of Angry Birds they want to play. Apple has them all.

Also this is the one market where Apple is on par with pricing. EVERYBODY sells phones for wayy too much money, so if you need to hound a salesperson for a hour just to save $25 off the price of a $800 phone, you are a time waster.

After all that, there is only one plan to get. Unlimited data, text, calling. $50/ mth, period. If you can't or won't pay that much, then don't buy a smartphone. All carriers have the same plan for the same price there is no need to talk to a salesperson hoping for that one sweet plan that nobody asks about or is advertized.

Also Apple can make buying a phone easier by ending the stupidity of having phones with different storage capacities. It costs like $0.50 for 64gb of flash memory these days so just deck the phone out with as much memory as you feel you can make an insane amount of profit off of and sell one version of the phone so consumers don't have to ask a salesperson how many songs, pictures, and movies it holds. Besides, its all in the cloud these days so you do not need to have 6 years worth of continuous music stored on your phone.

Finally, MOST people these days buying a cellphone are buying a replacement. If you didn't understand the process of how to buy a phone and pick a plan the first 3 times, maybe you shouldn't be buying the phone.

So, just put automatic iKiosks in every mall in the country that has a credit card slot in one end and spits out an iPhone in the other.

 

[FirstNTenderbit]

I'm no mathematician,and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but how would anyone in their right mind even hope to achieve 50% of US iPhone sales utilizing 250 retail locations?

I just Googled an estimate on iPhone sales Apr-Jun quarter. Saw a figure of 9 million phones. Accurate? Who the hell knows. Doesn't matter for the purposes of my point. We will pretend it's accurate.

9 million phones. 50% would be 4.5 million from the 250 retail locations. That's 18,000 iPhones per location. I am lmao. If people are moaning about the store traffic now... holy smokes.

 

[TWSS37]

One of the biggest reason is because Samsung offers incentives directly to the salespeople to push their phones. The consider this a marketing cost.

I love this mindset. Even if it were true (and if it is true, PLEASE cite a trusted and credible source that Samsung, or any other vendor, is giving salesperson specific kickbacks based on a particular handset) there is nothing stopping Apple from doing the SAME THING.

It's just like the iPhone model of one phone per year - you can't say that "Oh, Samsung sells more because they release a new phone every month!" because that is their business model. It's how they choose to meet their bottom line. Apple/Samsung/Nokia/etc. are all in the smartphone business - how they choose to operate within that marketplace is up to them, but nothing is stopping ANYONE from doing things differently. If Apple doesn't want to give spiffs, fine. But don't say that it's because of THAT which is why their sales are lagging in retail outlets. If it were that much of a concern, they'd shift their business model.

 

[BJMRamage]

what if the new CHEAP iPhone was ONLY available via Apple Stores?

Then they could, in theory, meet that lofty goal.

 

[BSben]

I am Canadian, I was buying it in the US, they didn't activate it on a plan with a carrier it was just activated on Apples system to make sure it was unlocked supposedly

Sorry, I forgot that in some countries unlocked phones are not the norm in Apple stores. My bad, I do apologise.

 

[jamesnajera]

Have you ever considered why they push them to Android phones? What makes you think the sales rep are obligated to push a stale design? Because it's Apple? Not everyone froths at the mouth over the iPhone like so many people here.

I would think it would be in the carriers interest to push the iPhone based on stories like this:

https://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/1...-unsold-iphone-purchase-commitments-for-2013/

That story also tells me why Tim wants to sell more iPhones at Apple stores. The carriers are already locked into buying "X" amount of iPhones, meaning if Apple sells the iPhones at a Apple store, the carriers now have to work much harder to make up the loss they just had by Apple selling the iPhone and not them. This means, the carriers will want to promote the iPhones in the store more and possibly run more television advertisements.

 

[hsmith]

Verizon and Wal Mart

They assume the Verizon and AT&T stores are the place to go, but when they do go, the sales reps push them to Android.

The Verizon store in Santa Rosa has one very small display for Iphone amidst a sea of Samsung and other manufacturers. At the time I went in there, they did not have any Iphones in stock. The sales person told me to go on-line and order it.
At Wal Mart in Windsor California they don't even have Iphones on display. Samsung and others provide "dummy" phones on display (Apple does not supply "dummy phones"). Given all that, it is surprising that outlets other than Apple sell anything near what is reported. Imagine what would happen if Apple had better marketing and store support.