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Putting Apple's retail traffic into perspective
Two days ago, during an interview with Bill Shope at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned some 120 million people walked through the doors of Apple's 394 (approximately) stores open in 2012. To put the magnitude of those 120 million visitors into perspective, The Mac Observer has put together an interesting article (with charts and all) stacking that number against some of the biggest attractions in the world. For example, Disney's 13 theme parks drew 125 million attendees in 2011; that's a scant 5 million higher than the number who visited an Apple Store in 2012. Also note that the 2012 Super Bowl drew about 111.3 million viewers. Credit the NFL as deserved, though: that was for just one evening, not the entire year! Perhaps the most striking statistic is that, compared to the entire world population in 2012, estimated at 7.07 billion people, Apple's 120 million store visitors equates to 1.69 percent of the world population -- a noticeable and discernible percentage in the total. It's staggering to think that Apple draws such significant foot traffic. For more comparisons -- and charts -- do check out The Mac Observer's post here.
Apple planning May event to celebrate its 10-year retail anniversary
Get your glad rags out, because it looks like Apple's preparing to celebrate the 10th birthday of its first retail stores at the end of next month. Employees have been told they can't request any vacation time in late May, possibly because Apple's planning some sort of event to mark the anniversary. The first Apple Retail Stores launched on May 19, 2001 in McLean, Virginia's Tyson's Corner Mall and at the Galleria in Glendale, California. The Glendale store has even achieved cult status now with the store number designation 001. It is possible that the holiday blackout is due to a new product launch; new Sandy Bridge iMacs are due, and there's always the iPhone 5. However, the iMac doesn't seem special enough to stop all staff going on holiday, and the iPhone 5 now seems more likely for September. The most recent holiday blackouts were for the Verizon iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. If Apple is planning a birthday party for its retail stores, will you be going along? How do you think Apple should mark the anniversary? Let us know in the comments. (Edited to fix store name.)
Personal shopping discontinued in Apple Stores
Apple retail stores are typically very busy places. While the staff are very helpful, customers generally have to wait around a bit before being served. Fortunately, Apple has offered a reservation system for services like the Genius Bar and training sessions. Unfortunately, one previously available service, personal shopping now seems to be gone. With personal shopping, customers could make an appointment up to two weeks in advance to have a staff member provide personalized assistance in picking out the right ways to spend money in the store. It's not clear why the service has been discontinued but customers can still get help with selecting the right Apple products. The only difference is that they'll now need to stand in line. Of course, good things are worth waiting for and who doesn't want to hang around the Apple store playing with iPads and Macs for a couple of hours?
Customizable Mac Pros available at Apple Retail Stores
Apple is trying out something new with the Mac Pro: one base configuration and endless configuration possibilities, including adding more RAM, hard drives and the like. Apple claims that this scheme gives people more flexibility than their old way of having three models to choose amongst.The first thought I had when I heard this was, 'Does that mean the Apple Retail Store will only have the one model and everything else will be special ordered?' It seems my worries were unfounded, as Todd at the Apple Blog found out that Apple Retail Stores will be able to configure your Mac Pro in any way you want.
