News - Apple breaks into top 5 UK PC vendors

[HEXUS]

Amid an overall decline in the Western European PC market, Apple continues to gain share.

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[Barakka]

Not surprised really, their retail model is superb for targeting the general public.

If your average joe wants a new PC laptop they go to PC World and are met with 6 aisles of various laptops, all different makes, models, specs, prices and as soon as you touch one you have an assistant asking you what you want.. what CPU (i3/i5/i7), how much RAM, what HDD etc - They Don't Know !!! and most of the time neither do the assistants !!!

If they go into the Apple shop they greeted by a space filled with all the different machines in setups they may use and can go and play for ages without being hassled... plus the choice is effectively between the Air, the Std MacBook, and the Pro, in either S/M/L screen size... if you do ask for help they ask questions like "What do you want to do with it ?" and they know how they work to demonstrate them - simples.

It's a bit like the Ikea retail model for furniture, putting the furniture into simulated spaces to show how it works and letting people explore in their own way/time.

I think it's also part of the reason why the iPhone is so successful and so annoying that the other mobile phone retailers haven't understood... if Apple launch an iPhone and I want to see if it's any good I can go to an Apple store the day after launch and there will be 20-30 of them to play with, actual phones, with live SIM cards in... If HTC launch a new phone it will be 3 weeks before most of the retailers have a plastic box painted to look like the handset, and no one will have a "live" handset for you to play with before you commit to using it daily for the next 2 years...

[mikerr]

Yes, I think you have something with the "Lack of choice being good". At least for many buyers - they are bewildered by choice in a PC shop,

[Barakka]

Yes, I think you have something with the "Lack of choice being good". At least for many buyers - they are bewildered by choice in a PC shop,

Exactly - the people that need the choice, like me can have it if they need it - I ordered my Macbook Pro over the phone and specified the CPU, RAM, HDD speed, and screen treatment for my requirements, I have no need for the shop.

The general populous like to go in and see it, prod it, poke it and be able to ask someone who knows how it works and can show them. It's all the same OS and application set, and that's what the staff sell as much as the hardware, which is much less confusing for non-techies.