Worst of the Week: Bad fruit

Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
I have used this space on numerous occasions to rail against or cheer for anything Apple Inc. has done over the years. And because of this I try to at times take a step back from all that Apple talk to focus on other topics that maybe are not as important as anything our overlords from Cupertino manage to concoct, but are instead topics that for some reason won’t leave my head until I write them down.
But, this week I have decided to go back to the Apple tree following news that the company is on the verge of massively expanding the retail reach of its still hilariously-named iPad. (Really? iPad?)
Now, this is probably a good thing for Apple and its shareholders, as witnessed by its stock price shooting up 4,000,000% to $1.4 billion dollars per share this week. However, I have a bit of an issue with this proposed expansion and the partners Apple is tying that expansion to.
First of all, I have always thought that some of Apple’s mystique was tied to the exclusivity of its products caused both by their premium pricing and inability to purchase one just anywhere. People that owned Apple products were always sort of part of an exclusive club that was enough to justify the extra money people were willing to spend for its products.
Of course, if you were to ask just about anyone you know if they have an Apple product or two my guess is that most would say they do, thus this exclusivity notion is really a false perception. But, I still think it’s sort of there and remains one of the tenets of Apple’s allure and what makes Apple cool in a Hans Solo in an “Empire Strikes Back” sort of way.
However, Apple recently announced that Wal-Mart Stores would begin offering its iPad device at its 313,000 retail locations occupying virtually every street corner in the United States. This would appear to be great news for Apple in that it seems just about everyone shops at a Wal-Mart and with them being located just about everywhere this is bound to result in the sale of more iPads (he he).
But, by going the route of partnering with the most mass of mass retailers in the world, it seems that Apple is selling its soul in an attempt to capture every last dollar. Again, great idea from a business perspective, but I never really thought of Apple as being strictly a money-is-everything business.
Sure, Wal-Marts have a similar stark interior design to an Apple Store, but the thought of buying something as special as an Apple product right next to a bin selling two-for-one Valentine decorations would seem to cloud some of that Apple luster.
Plus, I always thought what made Apple computers sell so well is that they were usually sequestered inside of an Apple store where consumers could not easily compare the specification with other brands or with any other retail item. Sure, Apple products are probably worth their price tag, but when compared with other computers offering similar performance, or for that matter any other retail item, I have always thought that justifying an Apple purchase as a difficult proposition.
As such, is it really a good idea for Apple to want to place its beautifully designed and premium priced devices on store shelves at a place where people come looking for the best deals possible? Apple products are indeed well designed and equipped, but when specifications and prices are placed side-by-side with other, similar products, I can’t see the typical deal-hunting Wal-Mart customer paying up the extra bucks for the Apple allure.
Wal-Mart has also announced that it was looking to accelerate the build out of its retail locations, which seems impossible as in the past six months a dozen new Wal-Marts have sprung up within a few miles of my house. I literally can’t throw a hamster without hitting one. And they want to add more?!? Good for Wal-Mart and apparently good for Apple.
The other expansion Apple is hitting is through Verizon Wireless and its retail outlets. Now, the issue I have with this has more to do with the impact the announcement will have on the millions of people champing at the bit to have any product from Apple that has anything to do with Verizon as well as those that only glance at news reports.
From a quick read it would appear that Verizon Wireless is now offering Apple products, which is correct, and that the iPhone must be one of those products, which is not correct. I have already had several people tell me this week that Verizon Wireless was going to start offering an iPhone in January and that Verizon Wireless was already offering the iPhone. Sure, one of those statements is false and the other is likely false, but for people that only have a passing interest in the mobile space, and that interest starts and stops at the words “Verizon” and “iPhone,” confusion is bound to reign.
I really have no opinion on carriers offering Apple products, but with the majority of consumers understandably possessing only the most basic interest or knowledge of the mobile space, it might do everyone some good to be a little more specific as to the exact relationship between a carrier and Apple.
I would hate for some bent-out-of-shape iPhone customer to waltz into a Verizon Wireless store demanding they be allowed to either switch their current AT&T iPhone to work on Verizon Wireless or that they be allowed to pick up a new Verizon Wireless iPhone (for free of course). And, then once finding out that neither option is actually possible, that now foaming-at-the-mouth iPhone customer takes out that inevitable frustration on those poor, good-natured Verizon Wireless sales associates.
Again, on the face of it, neither Apple nor Verizon Wireless are doing anything wrong here. But, after putting yourself into the position of a current iPhone user that spends day after day cursing their poor data connection or inability to make a call while standing in the middle of San Francisco, you can see that care should be taken in how this relationship is positioned.
So Apple, for the love of all that is wholly and good in the world, please be careful with all this expansion. While everyone may like an apple every now and then, they tend to lose their appeal when part of every meal.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
— So the FCC is looking to require mobile phone companies to be more pro-active in alerting customers when they are nearing the limit on any sort of service bucket they have for their wireless service. I think this is a great idea, an idea in fact that many carriers already have implemented and one that now that the federal government is looking to back will somehow end up as some sort of explosion of epic, or at least NASCAR, proportions.
May I also suggest to the federal government that they push for a similar program for grocery stores. I mean have you seen the small print they put on price tags in stores. And its most often jumbled next too some sort of price per unit figure as well as those damn bar codes. How is a simpleton like myself expected to realize that the box of Pop-Tarts costs $37.89? It would be nice to have some sort of warning as to the thousands of dollars worth of merchandise I have thrown into my shopping basket before having that amount thrown into my face at the checkout counter.
–Sure, there have been a lot of arguments regarding the need to ban the use of cel
l phone while driving, but leave it to a recreational driver to put it all into perspective. Well said.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@ardenmedia.com.