StayPuftZombie

lkrupp said:

mike54 said:

I don't agree with what she has done to the Apple Stores and I don't agree with what Tim Cook has done to Apple. Both are on the same page focusing on investors, image and PR and should be in different positions. Both are non-techies but are good for the investors.

And the really interesting thing is that you and @StayPuftZombie, with all your venom against Apple’s present leadership team, have absolutely no place to go. There is NO alternative to Apple for you based on your own pontifications about how a tech company should be run. Where will you go? What will you buy? A Dell running Windows? I think not. No, you’ll bitch and complain and then stick to Apple products like you always have. 

That is crushingly accurate.  The 2nd choices are just craptacular.  While Surface hardware has gotten really good/interesting (the surfacebook), the software is still a pain-smoothie.  

But to recount a little history, when things got bad enough on the Mac back in the late 80s early 90s, I was forced and did go to NeXT (which was not only a god send and step up, I still miss parts of it as still being better than OSX in many ways to this day) and NT (god helped me).

Today, I'd probably realistically amble along with a hackintosh for a few years (assuming they mess up the new mac pro and make it an unupgradable blight like the iMac Pro and macbook pros) to figure out what to do. Maybe some linux variant.  Some that mimic NeXTstep like GNUSTEP (and can even run some mac apps) and some that mimic the mac.  But to your point, 2nd place is far away.

That said, just because the alternatives are garbage doesnt mean you laud apple for their bad decisions and moves.  Precisely because I want them to do well.  And again, the 90s were evidence that when things do get bad enough, people, even long time fans, did abandon apple.

Mike Wuerthele said:

StayPuftZombie said:

chasm said:

I think the results of the Apple Store speak for themselves. The most profitable store-feet in the entire industry, millions of visitors, extremely high customer satisfaction. TrollPuftZombie has issues with reality, not Ahrendts.

I agree with the comment about her non-techniness being an asset, because it means you focus on people. Her smartest move was that she didn't try and put her ego all over the place; she looked at what was working and left it alone, and made changes to make the place more of a gathering place with low sales pressure, which customers really respond to. Sure, you definitely get greeted when you go into one, but I've always found friendly employees with candid advice and the freedom (where available) to just hang out in the lounge area or play with the machines by myself when I wanted.

So far I've really liked the changes, including the improved shelving, the massive video display, the carefully-but-subtly organised sections of the store, the easier check-out, the always-willing-to-answer-a-question attitude, the increased "green" reminders -- and in stores that have them, the lounge areas and auditoriums where you can just chill if you like. I've visited stores in many, many US and Canadian cities over the years, and my main complaint is that you never see a sale price at an Apple Store, even on third-party stuff. The bargain-hunter in me doesn't like that, but that's what B&H is for, people.

Wow, another Skully era post.  Since sales went up with Skully at the helm, clearly all his decisions that lead to a horrible version of apple that almost went bankrupt until Steve came back, well they were great.  Because sales mean it's all right.  It's all right that the Mac Pro hasnt been updated in 5 years.  Sales are up.  It's all right that the mac mini hasnt been upgraded.  Sales are up.  Hey, when they didnt listen and kept screens small, sales were really good, so all that was all right.

And you know, people experiencing (at least in NYC) that the apple stores are the new DMV, no need to listen to that. Sales are up.  Skully was totally right after all.  Thanks Chasm for clarifying the that historically relevant metric.

Okay, so I was right. Read the commenting guidelines, and do it now. You're getting a lot closer to that line. Disagreement, even spirited, is fine. But, if you're planning on escalating and are going to be an ass, you're out.

Anyway, you might want to re-read the history of Apple's decline, and what led to it, in the '90s. It isn't as cut and dried as you think, and there's no one villain to point to. Sculley wasn't really the issue and made a few decisions in a changing market that led to the some problems, yes. 

Spindler and Amelio were the *really* bad decision makers, and were reactionary to the market instead of predictive. The entire industry is way, way different now than it even was in 2010. Apple, since Jobs' return and now with Cook is not just skating to where the puck is going, they make the shot in the first place -- so your comparison and expectation of imminent doom is a little strange.

Other than you deeming me to be an ass, i dont see how I'm "escalating" other than disagreeing with someone.  Someone you had NO ISSUE with Chasm calling me to be a troll. Or that Clair called me and others morons. Clearly they were engaging in substantive debate with their posts, all within the guidelines, natch. I'm sure you'll pay equal attention to them and give them stern talking too's too, right? It's like wacko scene out of "anger management" where youre just making conclusions for the outcome you want. 


Puhleeze spare me your patronizing. I know my history and what lead to what, and there is a fair chance I will have forgotten more about it than you will know in this lifetime.

Noting that Spindler and Amelio were stewards towards the crash diminishes the rotten trajectory Skully sent apple on. Steve's own words on it: "what can I say, I hired the wrong guy... He destroyed everything Id spent 10 years working for." See at the 3:44 marker

Mike Wuerthele said:

A disaster for who? Certainly not for Apple customers as a whole.

This entire response is an overt "Back in my day, it was the golden times!" call-back which doesn't make sense in any other context either. Look back to when the Apple stores were founded, and compare user bases, and numbers of users. You're right -- Apple isn't catering to who it used to in 2002 when the concept launched, and, frankly, it shouldn't, because it doesn't need to.

Apple doesn't need our "help" to do anything, and they sure as hell aren't looking to us for validation. Looking back at your five posts, you lament that Apple isn't aiming products squarely at your needs anymore, and are upset that we aren't defending what you, specifically, want.

Apple will do, what Apple will do -- and you can complain about it if you want. Vote with your wallet, if you don't like it. 

A disaster for apple as whole and for customers that like it. Ignoring the erosion of quality at the stores is like the apple press that wrote glowing articles about how sales were up for Skully while the company degraded until it was almost too late.

Your entire response is one just like supporters of skully provided, congrats for being a living relic yourself.  Pointing to my lack of posts also points to your lack of substance.  

Your banal conclusion does nothing but support mediocrity.  I have more options that. If enough voices point out, the emperor has no clothes, well realizing you have a problem is the first step to fixing it. Apple's numerous about faces in the face of enough backlash prove how hollow your little spat towards my post is (DVD vs CD Burn, bigger screens on iphones, enough backlash for the non upgradable trashcan mac, etc.). If you didnt fundamentally understand that, rather than resorting to low grade derision, you wouldnt bother writing a damn thing. But I await you taking your own advice, just shut up, and vote with your wallet. Yea, right.

claire1 said:

She's amazing. I have no idea why she gets bashed so much.

Since her direction, Apple Stores have gotten even less geeky and more open.

If by less geeky you mean more like the DMV, then we agree.

https://dailycaller.com/2018/03/15/apple-store-dmv/

What an overly generous puff piece.

Angela has added some plants, pulled the "Store" off the stores' names, removed lanyards, killed the genius bar and added logistical chaos and worse training to the stores. That's the sum total, other than collecting gobs of ill earned money, of her years of tenure at apple.

She took what was for many the best retail experience ever, where an apple store was something you enjoyed visiting, and turned it into the DMV.  Now instead of heading for the genius bar for your appointment, you start with game of human pinball.  

Find an apple employee, with no lanyard as a visual cue, that's holding an iPad to get to your appointment. When you find the first one, you ask for your appointment, and they inform you, theyre not the person for that and send you to another one.  You go to that employee that you think they pointed to, but they're not it either.  Finally you get to the person with the appointment clip board, and they play, let's pick a table.  They send you to some random table and log your name/position.  Now, the genius plays Apple Store Maps.  The "genius" now goes around the table asking for you (mispronouncing your name at times), and sometimes goes to the wrong table because the position was logged wrong. Or a person misunderstood what table they are to meet at. All this wastes both your and the apple employees time in pinball'ing around when everyone could just have instead, clearly and easily, met at the genius bar. Then, when the apple employee finally ends their game of hunt-and-go-seek, you are rewarded by talking to a 'genius' that no longer talks to you like you understand something and 'jumps to the chase' but instead, they walk you through a script process, because now the vast number of geniuses have become equivalent script kiddies. No brain, all script. Oh, and you do this all through intolerable crowds of other now grumpy store goers.

In contrast, Steve Job's created genius bar was not only a signature feature that she destroyed, but something that calmed not caused store logistical chaos. You just head to the back for your appointment, simple. No DMV zombie human pinball hordes bouncing off each other from 'Angela's DMV Apple Emporium' 'improvements'. Also, it kept all the grumpy people with problems away from the people shopping, preventing the spread of DMV'itus throughout the store.

In other words, the apple store, the highest earning per square foot retail store in the world that Angela inherted, has been turned into the apple DMV, by angela, that I (and many others https://dailycaller.com/2018/03/15/apple-store-dmv/) want to avoid at all costs.

My fear is apple managment (and now with the help of appleinsider) are positioning angela as the next CEO apparent, which will be a disaster of the likes to make us long for the days of Skully.