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Spilt Milk, Or Not (2/8/98)
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Apparently nobody's too sad about Apple's recent pullout of all non-CompUSA national reseller chains. According to MacCentral, those retailers who were cut from the Mac business don't expect to see any change in their bottom lines. Big surprise; we honestly wonder if anyone in history has ever bought a Mac from Sears, given how poorly they displayed and maintained the floor models. So there's certainly no more than a mild shrug over the spilt milk from that side of the fence.
On the other hand, CompUSA and the regional resellers who still sell Macs are reporting that their Mac-selling activity is gathering steam, which isn't a huge surprise. A Computer City spokesperson (didn't they get canned??) reports that his store is seeing "a lot more activity" on the Mac side these days. Most people who are still buying Macs at this point in time aren't first-time buyers who don't know what kind of computer to get; they're probably existing Mac users who want another Mac, so they'll take their business wherever Macs are available.
And, of course, there's the CompUSA store-within-a-store success story, which boosted its Mac sales percentage from 3% to 14% in a recent month. Whether that kind of increased business can be sustained (or if it's just due to the Christmas buying season) remains to be seen, but all CompUSA Superstores are apparently now outfitted with the salon stores. We eagerly await the numbers for subsequent months.
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SceneLink (433)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 2/8/98 episode: February 8, 1998: Apple's learned a thing or two about slipping on OS release schedules, and is now redefining what qualifies as "on time." Meanwhile, those retailers who had their Macs pulled out from under them are barely shrugging at the change, and finally Bill Gates' fashion sense is explained...
Other scenes from that episode: 432: Moving the Finish Line (2/8/98) Stand back-- Apple's "refining the timetable and feature sets" for its upcoming operating system releases, according to a MacWEEK article, and I think we all know what that means. A year ago Apple committed to a rigid release timetable for both the Mac OS and Rhapsody, and so far they've managed to stick to their guns pretty well... 434: Trust No One (2/8/98) As the AtAT staff is sadly too exhausted to bring you a decent conspiracy theory right now (our paranoia muscles are overworked), we are grateful in the extreme for My Mac Magazine, whose "Mac Factor" column this month draws back the veil of obfuscation and reveals all...
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