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Forgot To Carry The 1 (6/6/99)
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So here we were, all concerned and frustrated about how the official debut of the iMac at Sears seemed to have fizzled and died. After hearing that the big kick-off had been moved from Memorial Day weekend to last Friday the 3rd, we were of course very patient and understanding about the less-than-perfect state of affairs a week ago; we decided to wait until the weekend of the 3rd to see how things would improve. Unfortunately, it appeared that nothing had changed; reports were mixed, but in general, the iMacs were either not running demo software or were off altogether, there were no brochures or other marketing materials available, and salespeople were, at best, not trained for selling iMacs and at worst prone to bad-mouth the Mac platform at every available opportunity. And, of course, there were no TV commercials or even a single mention of the iMac in the Sears Sunday circular-- though there was an eMachines Windows box on sale. Not exactly the gala grand opening celebration we'd hoped it would be.
Imagine our surprise, then, to receive email from one of the Marketsource-hired Mac fans charged with keeping the iMac situation healthy in local Sears stores. We're not sure if he could get in trouble for contacting us, so we're not going to tell you which stores he's detailing or what his name is; let's just call him "Bubba." Anyway, Bubba informs us that the new official launch date was not June 3rd, but rather June 13th. Perhaps the "1" just hid in a blind spot when we originally got the news, or maybe we were just misinformed-- but we have it on good authority that the real date to watch is Sunday the 13th. By then, according to Bubba, any Sears computer department associate who hasn't completed iMac training "won't be allowed to work the floor." In addition, brochures and marketing materials are starting to show up from Apple, and the iMac is slated for a big feature in next week's Sunday circular.
Sounds good to us. If it all comes to pass, and in one week all 800 Sears stores have iMac-savvy salespeople, well-maintained demo systems, and plenty of brochures for interested potential customers, then Sears (and Apple) will have gotten its act together far more quickly than CompUSA did, for instance. So for now, we're compressing our righteous indignation into a hard little ball and keeping it locked deep inside. Here's looking forward to the 13th...
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SceneLink (1583)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/6/99 episode: June 6, 1999: Somewhere the wires got crossed-- apparently the new date for the official iMac rollout at Sears is June 13th. Meanwhile, Motorola denies rumors that the G4 is six months behind schedule, and Peter Brady reveals his Macness in a tell-all exposé...
Other scenes from that episode: 1584: Waiting To Accelerate (6/6/99) For those of you who are looking forward to picking up a brand-new Power Macintosh G4 this fall, you might just have to wait another six months. Or you might not-- it all depends on whom you believe... 1585: A Very Brady Macintosh (6/6/99) You know, there aren't many things that could make the AtAT staff give up their traditional Sunday night viewing of The X-Files, even while the show's in summer reruns-- but near the top of that short, short list is the E!...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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