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retail
Apple's secret to selling iPhones: Windows Mobile
After a rocky iPhone 3G launch, Apple's store operations have returned to a model of efficiency. One of Steve Jobs's secrets: roving sales clerks who use mobile devices to ring up orders anywhere in the store, not just at the cash register. Ah, but which devices? Motorola MC75 handhelds running Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.
breakdowns
iPhone day 18: Steve says to tell you we're sorry
LiveJournaler akil writes of a recent visit to the Apple Store, where a new, streamlined process for iPhone buying was in effect: "They started prequalifying people at 6:30 a.m. Within three minutes of arriving, I was given a serialized tag that is linked to an actual iPhone and I'm guaranteed to get one." Separately, an Apple employee who gives his name only as "David G." says Steve has asked him to post regularly on the status of Apple's buggy MobileMe service. (Photo by akil)
Apple Users Held Hostage
iPhone day 12: Three's a crowd -- if you only have two phones in stock
Email from yet another thwarted iPhone buyer, this one in New York: More »
great moments in customer service
From a would-be iPhone 3G buyer in San Francisco:
More »
iPhone, day 11: But it was on the Internet, dammit
From a would-be iPhone 3G buyer in San Francisco:
More »
apple store
iPhone day 7: Store getting remodeled, but lines still long
A tipster snapped this late-night shot of Apple's Union Square store being overhauled. You — yes, you waiting in line with your old iPhone — send us photos of the results when the store opens at 10, willya? Separately, we've been told that Apple Store employees at the San Francisco flagship cut off would-be buyers who arrived after 5:30 p.m. Shoppers timed the morning line at 2.5 hours yesterday. That's even more time than I spend watching my BlackBerry reboot.
Tim the IT Guy
What Apple can learn from McDonald's
[Editor's note: Tim Woolery, aka Tim the IT Guy, works hands-on in IT in the Bay Area. With nearly 15 years' experience at everything from CAT 5-cabled steel furnaces to intercontinental remote-controlled radio stations, Tim's able to spot and plug holes in the coverage of important tech news. Rather than bone up on change management best practices ourselves, we decided to let Tim post for himself once a week.] More »
3:00 PM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By Tim the IT Guy
2,999 views,
8 comments
Latest by N/A: Apple has generally shown itself as a nimble player in most any market space it enters. I believe that it was more »
steve jobs
Apple sold 1 million iPhones over the weekend
Apple sold its one millionth 3G iPhone on Sunday, reports the company. That's up from about 300,000 sold over the first three days of the first iPhone launch. “iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Apple chief flack Katie Cotton, in a statement attributed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. We're surprised Cotton didn't also have Jobs say that the weekend was "extraordinary," "incredible," "tremendous," and "unprecedented." Jobs also "said" it took 74 days for Apple to sell as many of the first generation iPhones last year. More »
overheard
Apple employee: iPhone 3G launch failure is "shitty"
NEW YORK — Apple's iTunes store, required for activating the new iPhone 3G is failing, causing massive chaos from coast to coast. Even Apple employees are — when they don't realize a reporter is in earshot — acknowledging this. "I can't believe there's just so much stuff going wrong," says one employee at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store as he takes his lunch break sitting next to me. "It's not very Apple-like. It's shitty. It just shouldn't happen." His friend agrees: "I called my dad and his phone still doesn't work."
spy video
A firsthand view of Apple's iPhone chaos
NEW YORK — Apple Store employees are a little tense today. They got nine hours of training preparing for today's iPhone 3G launch. Then there was all the press and hoopla when the day finally began. (I overheard two of them complaining about it: "I felt like I was going to vomit," one said. The other: "I felt like was as going to vomit too!") Then there was the crowd control. Then the iTunes Store, required to activate phones and thereby complete sales, went down. I snuck a hidden camera into the Fifth Avenue Apple Store and surveyed the chaos. Roll the clip. Meanwhile, here's a reader's account of an experience at an Apple Store in Walnut Creek, California: More »
apple
How long is the iPhone line? This long
NEW YORK — To get to the front of the line for the 3G iPhone here at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store takes about two hours of waiting from back to front. All for a device that probably won't work until tomorrow, thanks to a crash of Apple's activation system. It's much quicker — about two minutes — to just walk from the front to the back. Play the clip to ogle the desperate iPhone-seeking horde.
geek love
First guy in New York iPhone 3G line scores a date with hot Apple employee
NEW YORK — I'm sitting outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store here in New York, writing up a post about the long line for the iPhone, when a pretty girl wearing aviator sunglasses and a white blouse sits next to the guy sitting next to me. She says to her friend: "So I've got a date with Dan." "Who?" the guy asks. "The guy who was first in line — the guy who bought the first iPhone today. He's doing the documentary thing, his name is Dan." More »
iphone 3g
With iPhone 3G lines weak, is the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field fading?
As Apple started to ring up sales of its new iPhone 3G, the scene at the flagship Apple Store in San Francisco was much quieter than last year. By 8 p.m. last night only 12 people were in line, and by 4 a.m. only 40. By 7:45 a.m. this morning, the line had grown past 325, nearly to the length it was at last year's launch, with Apple Store employees dispensing coffee and water to the waiting crowd. One man, who had taken the 20th spot in line, was trying to sell it (unsuccessfully) for $100. How did Robert Scoble get into the first 20 allowed into the store? He had his friend wait 36 hours in line, sleeping in a tent. (At San Francisco's minimum wage, you and your friends owe the guy $351, Scoble.) How was the turnout in Palo Alto? Lame. New York? Lame. Vancouver? Lame. Meanwhile, the news about the coincidental Apple TV update went by nearly unnoticed, and Apple bungled the release of MobileMe. So while there was a crowd, even here in the heart of Apple country, the pictures after the jump show the religious fervor is considerably less intense than before. More »
clips
Apple Store now the place to start your modeling career
Isobella Jade didn't have a computer when she started her modeling career in 2005. But she needed one for scheduling shoots. Her solution? Work from the Apple Store all day. When our MacBooks break down, we do the same! Except we're not "body parts models," so when the clerks ask if they can help, they're asking if they can help us please stop now. The "trailer" from Jade's autobiography,Almost 5'4", is embedded below. Skip two minutes in for the Apple Store's weird cameo. More »
virtual worlds
Apple leveraging cyberspace to reach growing meth-addict shut-in demo
A patent application filed last week suggests that Apple plans to sell the company's high-margin fetish objects in 3D virtual worlds. Now your avatar can put on skinny jeans and a colorfully-printed hoodie and spend your money in an ephemeral simulacrum of the Apple retail experience — even if you live in Humptulips, Washington, hundreds of miles from one of the company's real-world boutiques. Coincidentally, a methamphetamine epidemic is raging in places underserved by Genius Bars. Luckily, Apple knows how to reach that demo: More »
crime
Apple store employees violate 5-iPhones-per-customer rule in a big way
Two employees of the Salem, N.H., Apple Store (where I shop, natch) have been arrested and charged with stealing 332 iPhones. No word on what the two delinquents did with the phones, worth almost $133,000, but we suspect they were sold off to be unlocked overseas. Here's what I want to know: How the hell did they steal 300-plus phones?
apple store
Apple hires 3,500 new retail zombies
Apple's retail staff increased 44 percent from September 2007 to December 2007. Over the past two years, the retail division's staff numbers have risen between 2 and 15 percent per quarter. The company now has 11,400 "equivalent" full-time retail positions. At this year's shareholder meeting, head of Apple Retail Ron Johnson pegged the number of retail employees at 15,000, indicating that a huge percentage of them are considered "part-time." More »
quotable
Overheard at the Michigan Ave. Apple Store
Customer: Do you have the Time Capsule in stock?Apple Store employee: Um, it's supposed to be out in February ... we're not sure when it's coming. But, it's a leap year so we have an extra day!
