This article finds me writing in one of Germany's high speed trains
hurtling towards Berlin at the amazing speed of three hundred
kilometers per hour. I completely forgot how nice train journeys can
be: You don't have to check in hours before you leave, you can buy your
ticket on the train, and there is no need for a transfer bus from an
airport towards the city-centre (as all of Germanys train stations are
bang in the middle of the urban conglomerate).
But sorry, I digress as usual. The real reason for this column is
the infrastructure that Apple has build up in Germany. Although still
lacking any Apple Shops as glamorous and attractive as the new stores
in the US (you guys have it good), this country has an surprising dense
and good supply of Mac retailers and service centres. Apart from one
giant chain, most of the shops are being run by small companies,
offering retail, consulting, and service in one.
The large majority is being run by enthusiastic individuals who sold
their soul to Apple way back in the eighties and do what they enjoy
most: Spend all their time advising and consulting their clients on how
to fully enjoy their computers. And although they would probably be
able to increase their clientele and improve their balance sheet, most
of them refuse to store Wintel/AMD compatible stuff. At all. Okay,
maybe apart from Virtual PC and USB hardware.
A little example: My mother's 9600 recently suffered a fatal
hard drive problem that I was not able to diagnose or repair
appropriately from 18,600 km away, so I contacted her nearest Apple
store and prepared them for her arrival, making sure they would report
any problems back to me - and reassuring my not very hardware literate
mom.
After recovering all of her old data, exchanging the struck hard
drive, and updating all of her software (!), they charged her 100 Euro
(100 US$). The machine has worked flawlessly since then, and that
little shop has now become the source for all her hardware and software
needs, as the 9600 will get a radical overhaul with a big new hard
drive, a G4 card, and OS X 10.2.2 (after seeing the eye candy on
my machine).
So what's my point? My point is that, contrary to popular belief, a
properly run small shop full of enthusiastic Apple evangelists can have
the same impact on a community as a full blown, hyper-chic branded
store.
So on this gloomy December evening, here's to all the small Apple
retailers who improve their clients lives with sensible advice and a
sales force not consisting of spotty nerds.
Cheers. 
