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300 More Places (11/5/98)
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Meanwhile, Apple's plan to make the iMac more easily available to the average consumer continues to move forward. The Consumer Loan is a big part of that plan, but so is the renewed reseller relationship with Best Buy. Best Buy sells a pretty significant chunk of computers into the home market, if their numbers can be believed, so signing them on to sell iMacs is a crucial move. Apple's history with Best Buy was shaky, to say the least-- after all, they were the first national Apple reseller to start pulling Macs from the shelves, in the Great Retailer Purge that left CompUSA as the only national retail chain still allowed to sell Macs. But apparently things have been patched up, and Best Buy will start selling iMacs in its three hundred stores in thirty-five states beginning this Sunday. A MacWEEK article discusses the rollout.
To help promote the introduction, Apple is using their tried-and-true method of recruiting Mac-savvy volunteers to staff Demo Days events at Best Buy stores, just as they've very successfully done at CompUSA stores for the rollout of new products. We're very interested to hear if the same arrangement proves successful in Best Buy's environment, which is pretty different from CompUSA's. (One anachronism we've noticed is that while it's easy to think of Best Buy as a warehouse full of consumer electronic equipment, it's CompUSA that usually looks like a warehouse. The only Best Buy we've been in was at least clean and well-lit.)
Interestingly, Best Buy-- whose clientele is typically much more geared to the average electronics-buying consumer than CompUSA's-- isn't participating in Apple's new "iMac for $29.99 a month" consumer loan program. Apparently the reason is that Best Buy already has their own consumer loan program, though we weren't able to find hide nor hair of it on their web site. When the new Best Buy store near us opens in a few weeks, maybe we'll pop on down to see if the terms are any better than Apple's.
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SceneLink (1130)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 11/5/98 episode: November 5, 1998: Apple introduces the Magical $2000 iMac™, which costs less than three pizzas a month but takes about six years to pay off. Meanwhile, Best Buy gears up for this Sunday's iMac introduction, and Judge Jackson reveals he's out of patience when it comes to Microsoft attorney Ted Edelman's cheap little tricks...
Other scenes from that episode: 1129: The $2000 iMac (11/5/98) It's now officially official-- you can buy an iMac for $29.99 a month. (Before it was only just "official," since while it had been confirmed by a representative of the Apple Consumer Loan program, it hadn't yet been announced in a press release.)... 1131: Rethinking the Cast (11/5/98) And in "Redmond Justice" news, apparently we aren't the only viewers who think Microsoft's new mouthpiece Ted Edelman is as, er, uncompelling as Scott Hope on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Based on several reports, Edelman (who entered the ring to relieve heavy-hitter John Warden once Apple golden boy Avie Tevanian took the stand for cross-examination) seemed to us to be whiny, sarcastic, and about as sharp as a bag of wet hair...
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