It was a dark and stormy night. Well, actually it was more of a cool
and sunny afternoon. I was in Dallas for a few days and had some spare
time. Since I don't get back to my hometown all that often, I decided
to take advantage of it and do some shopping. And by shopping, I mean,
"Computer shopping!" I went to the Apple Web site and did a search for
Apple retailers in the area. In the middle of page two was a totally
unexpected discovery: An Apple retail store! My destination was
charted.
Unless you count the company store in Cupertino, I had never been in
an Apple store. I had not realized that Apple had opened a store in
Dallas, so this discovery was a very pleasant surprise. I hopped in the
car with map in hand (the store was in a new area that I was not
familiar with) and set out for North Dallas.
The store is in the Shops at Willow Bend, which is, as it turns out,
in Plano, actually north of Dallas. This was a brand-new mall; all of
the stores were not yet open. The Apple store was located between
Neiman-Marcus and Dillard's. Pretty nice real estate.
I was greeted immediately upon entering the store. I strolled over
to the iMac display and was approached by a young salesman. He asked me
if I was already a Mac user. In a moment of panic, I froze. I did the
only thing I could think of: I told the truth. Yes, I am a Mac user,
and I am very excited about the Apple stores.
I almost immediately regretted being forthright with the salesman.
Of course, I was there primarily to check out the store and all the
cool gadgets, but I was also there to assess whether this might be
something that would increase the Apple market share. By presenting
myself as a Mac user, the salesman could see that he was preaching to
the converted, so instead of seeing what they really had to offer, I
wound up in a low-key conversation about the new iMac's and
OS X.
I left the store shortly thereafter to regroup. I decided that I
would come back later with a plan in mind. It would have to be much
later that evening to assure that there would be few, if any, staff
left from my visit in the early afternoon. It would be an operation
reminiscent of James Bond - or at least Maxwell Smart. I would go back
around 7:30 that night and present myself as a Windows drone to see
what the staff might say to convince me to leave the Dark Side.
- This week we are moving into a new house. and my wife, who usually
reads this column, does not have Internet access. So I am able to tell
you the following story. However, you must promise not to spill the
beans to my wife!
Since I now had several hours to kill, I passed the time with two of
my favorite activities: eating Mexican food and more computer shopping.
I paid a visit to Micro Center, another retailer very high on my list
of favorites. I had been looking for a Christmas present for my wife
for a while. As soon as I discovered that Micro Center had a previous
model Titanium PowerBook
G4 (the 400 MHz model) and were selling for far less than original
cost, I knew I had found the perfect present! The PowerBook had been
bought and then returned under their 7-day "no questions asked" return
policy. All the packaging was there, and it had not been registered
with Apple, so I had essentially just bought a brand-new PowerBook for
not much more than half of what they were selling for 10 feet away. It
even included the OS X 10.1 upgrade. I took it back to the hotel
to try it out (after all, I had to be sure everything worked!) and
right now, quite frankly, I can't stand the thought of parting with it.
What a computer. And that screen is huge! But I digress.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, after stuffing myself with chips,
salsa, and enchiladas at the local El Chico, it was time to return to
the Apple store. Upon entering (and much to my relief), I did not see
any familiar faces from earlier in the afternoon. The store was now
much more crowded. Whereas there had been only five or six people there
in the afternoon, there were now well over a dozen, plus youngsters
positioned at all four iMac seats in the children's area. I was greeted
immediately upon entering the store. A staff member approached me and
struck up a conversation. No, don't know much about this Apple stuff.
Tell me about it. Why should I switch? None of my programs will run on
it, will they?
What transpired next can only be described as truly remarkable. This
young man displayed an amazing knowledge of Apple products and
computers in general. The new OS doesn't crash. Apple controls the
entire design and manufacturing process for both hardware and OS. This
allows them to achieve the highest possible degree of stability and
problem-free computing. Apple computers connect seamlessly to the
widest variety of multimedia peripherals, and they do it right out of
the box. No drivers to install. You just plug it in, and the computer
recognizes it. Tell me about the programs you use regularly. No
problem, Mac versions are available for all of them. If you happen to
run into one you need that does not have a Mac version, here is a
program [Virtual PC] that will allow you to run it on your Mac. The Mac
is faster than an Intel processor running at twice the clock speed of
the Mac.
I found this experience refreshing. Most encounters with computer
sales people go something like this:
- Salesperson: "Like, can I help you, Dude?"
- Customer: "I am interested in buying a computer."
- Salesperson: "Yeah, they're way cool."
- Customer: "What can you tell me about this one?"
- Salesperson: "It's uh, like, well, really fast. It's got a hard
drive and
- lots of other cool stuff. And it's awesome at Quake!"
- Customer: "What kind of monitor comes with it?"
- Salesperson: "A black one."
- Customer: "Well, okay. Thank you very much."
- Salesperson: "No problem."
This person could have easily embellished the truth or purposefully
misled me. Remember, he thought I was a Wintel idiot. But instead, he
took the high road. He let the truth speak for itself. I came away more
than a little impressed.
The store itself was very impressive as well. It was well-stocked
with all Apple products and had a very large selection of software. I
was actually surprised to learn how many different Mac software
products are out there. This certainly ain't CompUSA. I was not able to
stump the guys at the Genius Bar. I had pre-formulated a question for
which the obvious solution was hooking two notebooks together in
FireWire disk mode, and they latched onto the answer immediately. The
sole disappointment was the selection of third-party peripherals. I
would like to have seen more items such as digital cameras, external
hard drives, CD and DVD players and recorders, tape backup products,
digital video cameras, etc.
Encompassing both of my visits, I was only in the store for about an
hour. During this time, I saw three pairs of PowerMac G4s and
flat-panel monitors of various sizes, an iMac, and several smaller
items go out the door. In a word, sales seemed brisk. This store is
located in what could arguably be called the most upscale section of
the Dallas area.
An Apple store which will be opening in Atlanta next year will be
similarly located in the most trendy mall in town. Not only should
these stores attract new users to the Mac platform, they also seem
situated to catch the eye of a fair number of customers who can afford
$1,000+ "impulse" purchase. Apple seems to be pursuing a strategy based
on the assumption that if they can just get a Mac in the hands of these
people, the Mac will sell itself. With all new Macs now preloaded with
OS X 10.1, I believe this is right on target. It is also not a bad
business strategy and, from what I observed, it seems to be
working.
Here's to a world filled with many more Macs!
Epilogue: As I was carrying the box for my Titanium
PowerBook G4 through the Atlanta airport upon arriving home, I was
approached by a Delta Airlines pilot. He asked me how I liked the
PowerBook, and I replied that it was fantastic. He explained how he had
always been a Mac user and then converted to "the dark side" in the
early 90s. He went on to say that with the OS X, the iPod, and all
the other great new products from Apple, he had decided to switch back
and was just trying to decide which computer to buy. The future is
bright indeed.
