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APPLE LAUNCH EVENTS bring a lot of fanfare with them, and part of that involves queuing up for the latest release on launch day.
Every major product released by the company has resulted in long queues of people waiting to get their hands on the latest iPhone or iPad device.
Yet for the launch of the Apple Watch and Macbook, Apple is taking a different approach and will encourage customers to buy either device online, where more will be in stock.
A leaked memo acquired by Business Insider shows Apple’s retail chief Angela Ahrendts instructing staff members to encourage customers to order online instead of visiting their local Apple Store on launch day.
The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers. The Apple Store app and our online store make it much easier to purchase Apple Watch and the new MacBook. Customers will know exactly when and where their product arrives. This is a significant change in mindset, and we need your help to make it happen. Tell your customers we have more availability online, and show them how easy it is to order. You’ll make their day.
By right, the queues for a new Apple product are the kind of thing that results in publicity for Apple as people wait hours, sometimes days, to purchase a device. In one way, it can help highlight how popular and desirable a device is but said fans can be the target of ridicule by brands for going to such lengths to buy a product.
Business Insider also reports that stores in the UK may not have any stock during launch, meaning the best way to order one is online. Customers will be able to try out the watch in stores, but will be directed to kiosks or Apple’s website if they want to order one.
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As long as there are idiots with more money than sense, Apple will happily relieve them of it. Marketing voodoo at its very very best.
All of the high end phones cost the same as the iPhone. osx is a far superior os to windows. Can’t really see your point.
Apple that far behind Android now that iOS is being compared with Windows Phone?
And Android still provides a home for over 98% of mobile malware.
I have an iPad and a HTC one and I much prefer android. I hate having to put my password in when downloading new apps
1Password makes that a lot easier, and more secure thanks to the complexity of passwords you could use.
Android is a nightmare for bugs and malware
Oh yeah, total cesspit for malware http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-report-on-android-malware-and-security-2015-4?r=US
not by me, no, iOS is the os for iPhone not OSX. The article refers to both the watch and the macbook. iOS is not behind android, Android only moving to 64bit 2 years after iOS for instance. iPhone still the biggest selling phone, I don’t think apple are too worried. I’m abit bemused by all the hate for a tech company though. buy the product you like, what’s the issue.
I think Apple’s new strategy has more to do with not wanting newspapers and TV screens full of pictures of empty stores and no queues in sight for the launch of the watch
Simply don’t understand people who will queue for the latest gadget when you can just walk in the next day and buy it anyway… can someone please explain to me why?
Am I missing something ?
Is it really just to be one of a multitude who queued up so they have it on day one?- if so….
A :Who cares
B: Youu will only be “one of the special ones” for one day
?
Answers on a postcard please
The apple iQ
By this logic not just Apple customers are stupid but anybody who:
- queues to get gig tickets (there will always be some again)
- queues to get latest game (night queues for ps4 or Xbox)
- queues to see movie at the premiere
Etc
These are just fans who cannot wait – stupid for you not that stupid for them.
Baffles me too my friend, what do they get out of it?
It’s not as if they’re limited concert tickets that will sell out without question.
No, they’ll keep manufacturing them until the next one comes out 1 or 2 years later meaning anyone who wants one can get one.
The picture above depicts total idiots in my opinion.
Very poor argument.
Gig tickets do sell out, constantly.
Movies are kept on God knows how many screens for weeks on end.
And video games remain on sale indefinitely – you can still buy PS1 games on amazon today.
These people are obviously passionate as you’ve implied but let it supercede impulse control, patience and sometimes, common sense.
One is justified in seeing idiocy in that.
I recall being in Boston on the morning the original NDS was released, a queue of about 5 people had stayed up overnight to be one of the first to own one.
When the doors to the store opened I finished my coffee and became the 6th customer in that shop to own one. Had the queue not been there I would not have known of its release though!
I possibly became the first Irish person to own this handheld bundle of joy that day and now 11 years on it really doesn’t make a bloody difference that I was first!
But it was cheap thanks to the exchange rate on the day so upside :)
As for the tickets and the movie premiere, it is a matter of scarcity.. The tickets will offer a one time experience, an apple product or a console should offer a long term experience, and will be manufactured to exceed demand, which is why it’s silly to queue in the cold for one. They also tend to be pretty major purchases..
I know for the iPhone 6 I saw queues for the next few days outside Regent’s Street. Personally I went online the day pre-orders opened and had one delivered to me at work on launch day.
Some people queue for the atmosphere, some people queue because they’re being paid by someone else to do it, some people queue because they needed it day one, but just didn’t plan ahead. Personally, feck that.
I’m typing this comment on an iPhone I so badly wish ran on android.
Strategically placed meteor strike please. Get rid of a few Apple w@nkers
HTC m9 sim free 805 eur, Samsung s6 840 eur, iPhone 6 – 700 eur.
Apple 2x times deerer than competition? Really…?
OS is then choice of preference. Android is more functional OS for tech savvy people, while Apple has still more than enough for any average person.
Apps wise Apple is still leading the way though – some best indie games out there are iOS only.
What baffles me is why people take such an interest in what other people do in their lives. Seriously. Why do you even care? Is your life so utterly perfect you have nothing better to be thinking of?
I’d never queue outside for a product for hours, let alone days. I just don’t see the point. The apple watch for example will be sellin for at least two years before they release another version. Wait a couple of months for the price to go down and bugs and glitches to be fixed.
I do pre order games if I’m very excited about a release. I preorder on amazon do that I can get it cheaper usually and it arrives directly to my door only a couple of days after the release. No standing in the cold for me!
Under questioning from independent senator Nick Xenophon, Mr King said Apple Australia is owned by Apple Ireland, which has a relatively low corporate tax rate. But he admitted he had never been on a business trip to Ireland.
Apple had turnover of $6 billion in Australia last year and paid $80 million in tax.
Mr King was unable to say how much of the money paid by Australian consumers buying Apple products went offshore.
“I find it extraordinary you can’t answer that,” Senator Xenophon said.
Senator Matthew Canavan purchased a $16.99 album on iTunes during the hearing and asked how much of that price would have been taxable income.
Mr King took the question on notice.
Turnover is a useless figure to bring up in relation to taxes. Taxes are placed on profits, not sales. You can’t just take the biggest number and compare that to the taxes paid. You either come across as someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about or someone with an agenda. Apple do a damn good job of avoiding taxes legally, but why do you need to fudge the numbers to get your point across?
Antony Ting is a tax expert at the Sydney University Business School.
Antony, I’ve got this iPad here. It was about $600. Can you explain to me where the money goes?
ANTONY TING: When you pay the $600 for this beautiful iPad, $550 in fact is paid to Ireland. Apple has a subsidiary there. That means it leaves very little profit to be taxed in Australia. To make it worse, out of the $550 paid to Ireland, $220 is never taxed anywhere in the world.
HAYDEN COOPER: Ever?
ANTONY TING: Ever.
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4212931.htm
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