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Secret Agent Man (11/27/97)
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Not long after Steve Jobs' spirited (and probably somewhat misdirected) targeting of Dell Computer as the enemy to beat, a Mac-lover in Dell Online's midst reported to MacCentral about a Dell "All-Hands" meeting which assessed the online stores of Dell's competition, including the Apple Store. There are a couple of noteworthy points in the undercover agent's report.
Despite some boos from the Dell-faithful, the display of the Apple Store onscreen prompted one manager to say, "You shouldn't boo them, because, after all, they are really legitimizing the way we do business." And while the Dell employees wanted to criticize Apple's online ordering system, they apparently thought it was "kind of neat," especially the way that the toll-free phone number was contained in the URL (though one guy reportedly scoffed that it didn't "conform to the 8.3 standard;" if he wasn't joking, he really needs to get a life). All in all, it looks like Dell may be a little nervous about the competition (or, more likely, just a little envious of the competition's technology).
The double-agent in enemy territory concludes with what we feel is a very good suggestion for the Apple Store: Dell now has passworded "Premier Pages" for its corporate customers, which contain customer-specific and targeted information about what kinds of systems and equipment that company buys, so they don't have to navigate through stuff they don't care about. Sounds like that would be a big draw to bringing some corporate clients back to Apple-- and it'd be excellent for education customers, too. We say Apple should go for it.
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SceneLink (217)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 11/27/97 episode: November 27, 1997: (Sorry—this was before we started writing intro text for each episode!)
Other scenes from that episode: 218: More on MacWin98 (11/27/97) Much to our befuddlement (boy I love that word), Apple Recon has neither retracted their "Windows 98 for Mac" unconfirmed rumor, nor have they abandoned it as a one-trick pony. Instead, they've updated it with further speculation based on the "1 - 2 year" time frame given for the beta... 219: SOS-APPL? LAW-SUIT (11/27/97) Meanwhile, the legal battle of the hour actually doesn't involve Microsoft, which these days is noteworthy in itself. Instead, it embroils Apple Computer in a struggle with a group calling itself Consumer Advocates over the current state of Apple service and support...
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