Let’s take a look back at the very first Apple Store to see how far we’ve come in the past ten years. Here’s a video from Macworld 2001 in which Steve Jobs takes us on a tour of the store in Tysons Corner, VA. He shows us the iBook and PowerMac, the Genius Bar and the infamous red phone, cameras and PDAs you could try out, a Kid’s Corner with educational games, and a giant rear-projection screen. What’s interesting is that only the first 25% of the store was dedicated to Apple computers whereas 50% was given to other products with an emphasis on cameras, video cameras, and PDAs. The Genius Bar was a lot smaller than it is in most stores today, and I’ve not once seen a red phone or had anyone need to use it solve a problem.
There’s an article at ZDNet that has more information about what the naysayers were predicting at the time, how the Apple Stores started out losing money and how much they’re making now, and another video.
I was at an Apple Store in Seattle, WA not that long ago, and while the products are different and the Genius Bar is a lot bigger, the essential goal remains the same. There were a ton of Apple products and you were encouraged to go and use any of them. The employees seemed genuinely happy to answer any questions the customers had in order to convince them the Macintosh was the computer for them. It’s not surprising to me that the Apple Store has been around for ten years and looks to be around for another ten more years.
Do you have an Apple Store story you want to share? Tell us in the comments below as we reminisce about ten years of Apple Store history.
Via [Engadget]
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