After complaining about everything related to Apple in the UK, I
thought it was time to have a word with one of the people who actually
know what they're talking about, to tell me what really is
happening with Apple in the UK these days.
So I emailed the UK's best Macmag's (http://macuser.co.uk) new editor, Ian
Betteridge, and asked him for an interview. To my delight he said yes,
and a week later he picked me up from his incredibly stylish office
building and gave me an audience in one of the pubs around the
corner.
An incredibly amiable person with a wicked humour, Betteridge
graduated in philosophy from university before working with Apple UK
and finally becoming first deputy-editor and then editor of
MacUser.
DP: Thanks for finding the time for us! I have been ranting
and raving in Low End Mac over the last
12 months over the state of Apple retail in the UK and that the only
place in the UK were you actually have more than one apple retailer
seems to be Tottenham Court Road in London. Do you see any changes
happening there?
IB: I don't see anything changing over night. It all depends
on what strategies Apple has at the moment. I think they're quite happy
the way things develop at the moment, especially for the professional
users, who either order via mailorder - because they know what they
want - or who go to one particular dealer which they know well. For
consumers it's a different story, because what Apple wants to do is get
the machines to the consumers where they then say "wow, this
thing is incredible". So at the moment, there's PC World...
DP: ...which is abysmal
IB: I wouldn't go as far as saying it's abysmal, but it's not
good or great.
DP: When was the last time you actually went there and tried
to buy a machine?
IB: I went to PC World about two weekends ago, and it was
[pauses and thinks] oookay - as long as you don't talk to the staff too
much.
DP: Yeah, but nobody is going to encourage you to buy the
things.
IB : That's the big problem for Apple, as Apple train PC World
staff, but six months later they're all gone. PC World has such a high
turnover in employees, which is the same problem for all high-street
retailers: to hold on to qualified staff. It's just a very casualized
workforce, which makes it even more difficult for us. But I think in a
way it is going to get easier for Apple, because they can now set up
machines which sell themselves so well: You look at the new iMac or the
new iBook and go: "Wow, that's something I want to play with, touch and
know more about!", and I think that goes for staff as well as for
customers, so there will be staff around at PC World which knows
something about the new Imac, and that will be self-perpetuating.
DP: But most Apple sales in the UK are still via
mailorder?
IB: ...and I don't think that will change, because mailorder
people know how to sell Macs.
DP: ...but only to customers who are already Mac users and
buy MacUser and Macworld.
IB: Yes, but I think that if you have a Mac on the cover on a
magazine now, people will pick that magazine up and look at it. We had
a stand on the Apple OS X Roadshow as Mediapartners, selling
subscriptions, and were surprised about the number of people who were
not regular Mac users, and it's surprising if you think about it: It's
a show about OS X which you would think appeals by and large to
regular Mac users, but the breadth of people who've been there was
incredible. So, I think that Apple will benefit from the curiosity of
the public, and this will benefit their retail. What would the other
options be? Open Apple Stores?
DP: Is this going to happen in London?
IB: I don't think it's going to happen this year, but it
might happen in the long term.
DP: But they have been quite successful, haven't they?
IB: They have been very successful in getting "eyeballs". I
am not sure how many percent of visitors are actually buying anything,
but in a sense, that's not really important: You want to draw people in
and say: "Hey, the Mac is here! Look at it! Play with it. Have fun with
it." To do that in the UK would be much more difficult: First of all it
would hurt a lot of dealers badly, especially the smaller ones, who do
exactly what Apple really needs: Keep Applesales going.
DP: ...but Apple is giving them a rough deal by allowing them
very tight margins
IB: The margins are certainly not good enough for high
quality service, but that's a problem throughout the computer industry,
not just Apple's. It's an eternal tradeoff: On the one hand, the
company itsself wants to make as much money as possible, on the other
hand, they need good dealers and balancing the margins is really
difficult. Probably the most difficult thing that Apple UK has to
do.
DP: Is Apple's share in the UK Market big enough to sustain
three Apple magazines?
IB: It seems to work so far. First of all, everyone in IT
publishing has lost readers, certainly over the last year. It's very
much been affected by the recession. We have not suffered that much
last year, because we have a big base of subscribers who will carry on
buying our magazine. We have been suffering a bit more this year, as
overall the market is down.
DP: But MacUser is not suffering from loss of ad
revenue, as you are selling ads pretty well
IB: It is tougher, because in the current environment every
company is having to justify what they are spending on advertising, so
it's a much more competitive market than 3-4 years ago when every
company was flooding the market with advertisements. It is harder now,
but I would be very surprised if any of the UK-Mac mags actually
tank.
DP: What I always like about MacUser is its cutting
edge format and with "20/20" its window into contemporary British art
and design. Are you using different designs for every issue?
IB: We have one basic template, but we have a lot of freedom
and latitude within that. We did a redesign at the start of last year -
god, it feels like it's just two weeks ago - and part of the reason for
doing that was to give us as much flexibility as possible, but within
that template. If you're doing a fortnightly magazine, the majority of
the layout has to be fairly regimented, as it would become a nightmare
if you would have to layout every page differently. So what we did was
work out a design that would give us flexibility in how we do news,
reviews and most importantly features. And that has overall been a big
success for us. We won a design award last year for our infamous "naked
man" cover,
DP: ....which was pretty cool
IB: ....especially if you saw the whole package,
DP: ...the picture in front of the private jet...
IB: Oh, you noticed that? How many people noticed didn't
notice the jet? And the ones who did thought it wasn't a real, but it
was definetely a real jet.
DP: Didn't you get some complaints about nudity?
IB: Yeah, but they were all men.
DP: ...probably "Sun" and "Daily Star" readers.
