Monthly Archives: November 2011

The “Greatness” of Apple Stores

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Business, Technology

≈ 1 Comment

Lots of stories lately about the greatness of Apple Stores.

http://hbr.org/2011/12/retail-isnt-broken-stores-are/ar/1

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/business/steve-jobs-a-genius-of-store-design-too.html?pagewanted=all

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576364071955678908.html

The stores are undoubtedly cool. But are they great?

What percentage of Apple’s sales do you think occur through their retail stores? 13%. 

To put it another way, 87% of Apple’s sales come from someplace other than an Apple store.

Now, let’s go one step further. How would Apple stores be doing if Apple’s products sucked?

If my local Apple store only sold Toshiba laptops (instead of Macbook Airs,) HP Touchpads (instead of iPads,) and BlackBerry Torches (instead of iPhones,) how crowded do you think it would be on your average Saturday afternoon? Would people still consider the stores great?

Don’t get me wrong…Apple Retail stores are an important part of reinforcing the overall brand, allowing people to sample the products, easy access to service, etc. But let’s not go overboard. They’re crowded because Apple makes cool stuff, not because the stores are cool.

Defending the Kindle Fire

20 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in Technology

≈ 1 Comment

In meetings all across New York City this week, I defended the Kindle Fire as a tablet that will be a huge hit.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think I’ll ever use mine. I’m a technology snob. I’m likely to have a desktop PC, laptop, or iPad within reach at all times. Sometimes, I’ll be in front of all of these devices at once. And any of them are more capable than a Kindle Fire.

But none of them cost $199.

And for $199, the Kindle Fire is pretty damn cool.

Remember when iPad came out? It took a while for people to stop comparing it to their laptop and start recognizing that this was something totally different. True, it couldn’t do everything that a MacBook Air could do, there was no USB or SD card slot. But what it COULD do was amazing.

Along comes the Kindle Fire.

Flaws? Plenty. It’s heavy. The power button is inexplicably on the bottom. It’s slow. But what CAN it do?

If I’m being conservative, Fire does roughly 70% of what an iPad can do, at 40% of the cost. If you can afford to get an iPad, you should. But if you can’t, Fire is a worthy way to watch movies, listen to music, play games, and do lots of other things that have previously been unavailable at this price point.