Berkeley might not have an Apple Store, but there’s one right next door in Emeryville (Bay Street). There’s even the free Emery-Go-Round shuttle from a nearby BART station so you can take mass transit from UC Berkeley. (Berkeley doesn’t really have the sort of upscale shopping mall that Apple likes. Apple wouldn’t fit on Telegraph Avenue!) Coincidentally, there’s a CompUSA only a few blocks away from Bay Street.

When I was a kid (I’m giving away my age here) there were three little foreign cars of about equal quality on the market, the Morris Minor, the Renault Dauphin, and the original VW Beetle. All three were great cars, but only the third was successful. Beside great advertising, what the VW had going for it was that it was very aggressive in setting up a chain of local dealerships staffed with factory-trained mechanics. In the same way, Apple’s hookup with CompUSA might have have worked if Apple had invested the money to set up regional training centers where salespeople from each participating CompUSA store could be sent (at Apple’s expense) for some kind of familiarization with the Mac. Was it a mistake not to do this? Well, think of all the regions of the country were Apple Stores don’t exist: Apple likes to locate these in large cities and affluent suburbs. But what about The Rest Of Us? Even plenty of university towns with large student bodies (Berkeley, and Madison, to name two — I see that Ann Arbor is getting one), which ought to be obvious candidates for Apple Stores, don’t have them yet. So, if the program had been backed by a greater level of corporate enthusiasm, I think the CompUSA model could have been a success. If Apple wants a bigger slice of market share, they need the same kind of aggressiveness that VW used to make the Beetle the success it was, but they’ve never quite managed to develop this spirit.

The concept of buying a computer from some slacker at Best Buy who wasn’t born when the Mac debuted in 1984 makes me cringe. It makes me happy Apple Stores exist.

If you know what you want, and they have it in stock, it may not even matter. Besides, young people can and do understand Macs if they have the experience and training. I wouldn’t put them down for that, even though far too many are just working for the paychecks to help them survive their college educations.

Remember, when Apple was founded, Jobs and Wozniak were even younger than those folks who were born in 1984 are now.

Peace,
Gene

The concept of buying a computer from some slacker at Best Buy who wasn’t born when the Mac debuted in 1984 makes me cringe. It makes me happy Apple Stores exist.