
2001: Business Week explains why Apple stores won't work - pg
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_21/b3733059.htm?chan=search
======
mechanical_fish
These things are always fun to read.

Note that this article was written in May 2001. The iPod was announced in
October 2001. Nobody saw it coming, and even after it arrived lots of people
doubted that it would sell. If the iPod hadn't been invented, it's possible
that Business Week's analysis would have held up better -- the iPod drives a
lot of shoppers into the Apple Stores.

All the doom-and-gloom comparisons to the Gateway Store look hilarious now. My
understanding is that the Gateway Stores were not the problem; it was the
Gateways that were the problem.

~~~
mattmaroon
You are exactly correct. Minus the iPod, their stores probably would have
ended a miserable failure. With the iPod, and the resulting Apple hype,
they've become one of the highest profit per sq ft stores ever invented.

------
carpal
The last paragraph is priceless: "That's how everyone else does it."

These people really don't understand that doing the same thing that everyone
else does is not a winning strategy. Ever.

------
paul
"Maybe it's time Steve Jobs stopped thinking quite so differently."

------
bkbleikamp
I recently read something similar about Kleiner Perkins investing in "The
Google.com Company" and how risky it was and how unlikely Google was to
succeed against the "giant" of Yahoo.

Stuff like this makes me laugh :)

------
inovica
Great article, but then hindsight always is. I've always been an admirer of
Jobs, despite his purported failings. How Apple continues into the future will
be interesting to see.

------
snorkel
I too scoffed at the pretentious Apple store until I tried editing video on a
PC. Soon I too was walking out of an Apple store with happy with my purchase.
I scoff no more.

------
allenbrunson
oh my god, this is priceless! one of my favorite things about apple is that
competitors and analysts can't seem to grok the company at all.

