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Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

bloomberg.com

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Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#481

Post by hnick »

dorkwood wrote: post #463
f6v wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think 99% of customers do need an explanation on how to use the watch.

I’ll be honest, I’m one of the people that needs instructions for Apple products. I’ve been buying them online — each time becoming frustrated with the lack of instructions and the assumed knowledge necessary to use them. Oh, you didn’t know that there’s actually two different places to swipe down at the top of the phone? Everyone knows about that, you idiot!

For the iPhone at least there is a fairly extensive user guide online. It doesn't help much for technical issues but did a decent job explaining how to do things.

In my case, I learned about setting up a triple-click shortcut to pop up the accessibility menu so I could unmute the phone via software due to a broken side switch that won't stay on. I'm sure this is available elsewhere online, but using Google just took me to the regular places - typically someone posting on an Apple forum trying and failing to get help.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#482

Post by creata »

renewiltord wrote: post #156
JKCalhoun wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. I may be an old man, but what I want is the opposite of immersive technology. Put a computer on my face? Are you kidding? The one in my pocket already feels increasingly parasitic.

Nah, you're not an old man or anything like that. This is just the mainstream present technological scepticism. At some point marvelous technology became so ubiquitous we became blasé about it. Cynicism, pessimism, and affected jadedness have always been the way people have attempted to sound cool. Nothing new about that part. Ultimately, the question is whether your path brings you joy.

The commenter you're replying to doesn't seem skeptical of the technology, but rather fearful of it.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#483

Post by markdown »

crooked-v wrote: post #412
gizajob wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah absolutely. Every time I’ve been in my local Apple Store, I’ve basically been talked out of purchasing, or it becomes a huge hassle of upselling and extra worrying charges, and quite frankly, stupidity and lack of knowledge from the pseudo-smart staff. All they can do is toe the party line and what they’ve been trained to say and do, which kind of falls apart when faced with someone who has used Apple computers…

I've never had the kind of experience you're talking about at an Apple Store, so I'm very confused about those anecdotes.

[flagged]

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#484

Post by gizajob »

Gigachad wrote: post #427
XorNot wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you get how insane this sounds as an experience though? I'm physically in the store, saying "just let me pay for your product so I can leave" and the default is to try and drag that interaction out? The existence of workarounds doesn't make it not stupid.

Not really. Apple is catering to the majority of consumers who don't arrive at the store with their exact purchase ready to go. They want to be guided and shown all the options. And if you are in the small % who don't want this. Either go to one of the other retail stores selling the product, or order it online for pickup or delivery.

Yeah but the shop itself has a long-standing user interface, ie people go into a shop to buy what they want. Ok Apple are catering to people who might not be certain and amenable to upselling, but not easily catering to people who are fairly clear about what they want, for example long-standing and valuable existing customers, is seriously stupid. It’s not like people are casually wandering into an Apple store looking to purchase a hoover or a Linux netbook.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#485

Post by jerojero »

gizajob wrote: post #464
dcchambers wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apples pricing structure is also annoying nowadays too. As soon as one specs out and bumps a laptop, one suddenly finds that they may as well get a different laptop, ie once you bump up a MacBook Air, you may as well just buy a Pro, until all of a sudden your £999 purchase idea has turned into £3000 and a debate about AppleCare. Their pricing structure on basically all of their product lines is absolutely perfect f…

Well, it's not exactly perfect because I was in the mood to simply buy a basic Air, until I was pretty well talked out of it by sales staff, so instead of an easy £1099 in the till, in their attempt to turn that into £2500, they got £0. That isn't good business. Also, the tedium of nowadays knowing that all the products will be bumped in spec in 9-12 months means that instead of excitement, buyer's remorse has alread…

I wonder how representative you are of the average consumer though?

I imagine their pricing structure works well to upsell people on average, which is why they have maintained it for long.

Also, why would someone like you even go to the store; I had no issues whatsoever buying a macbook from their website. No reps, no nothing, I set my specs and clicked buy and a few days later had my product. I think most people with your profile probably buy online, and most people with the profile that fits store-goers are successfully upsold by the reps.

It is often that I see people on hackernews post as if the world was designed for them. When, in reality, they are most definitely the odd-man out.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#486

Post by creata »

Gigachad wrote: post #442
throw47474777j wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not because the technology was bad, but because people just don't want it. It’s hard to see how anyone who has been following the technology could make this claim.

HN users are generally pretty good at predicting the exact opposite of the future. Every obviously good product like Dropbox is claimed to be useless while every obviously crap product like Mastodon or the Librem phone is hyped up as the future.

Did people really suggest that Librem was "the future"?

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#487

Post by wredue »

ewchris wrote: post #430
amelius wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a new sales tactic, playing hard to get?

Back in 2009, buying a MBP, the salesman questioned why a CS student would want a mac over a pc. Luckily for him I wasn't considering his thoughts. I definitely didn't need that powerful of a computer and glad I switched to an air a few years later.

When I bought my windows XP computer, the salesman said “you really want a candy OS? Windows 98 is where it’s at”

Yeah. How’d that turn out, guy?

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#488

Post by willio58 »

hghid wrote: post #197

Slightly tangential rant, but is anybody else becoming frustrated with the process of buying Apple products in Apple stores? For me, it started with the Apple Watch - I knew which one I wanted and was ready just to head down and buy one, but I was forced to sit through an entire "fitting" with patronising explanation on how to use the knob on the the side. Recently, I wanted to buy a new Phone. Again, I knew the one…

I recently went in to do an exchange of a band I bought bundled with a watch and had to help the person helping me because their system didn’t understand it was a bundle and therefore had to be rung up differently. Same deal with them treating me like an 80 year old (I’m mid-20s). It’s almost like they need to be trained to recognize a person who doesn’t need a ton of support in their purchase. I would do better with self-checkout honestly.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#489

Post by StillBored »

dcormier wrote: post #466
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has not been my experience at all. I walk in (or make an appt beforehand for the sake of convenience), tell the what I want, plop down my credit card, and I am out of there in 20 minutes tops. Super smooth, professional experience.

Twenty minutes sounds like a long time to walk in, get something you already know you want, pay, and walk out.

Apple brings my snark out. After I went through all the BS to buy the base airpod for my kid, from the store, I then requested a printed receipt rather than give them my email addr.

Apparently the apple store near my house rarely gives people paper receipts anymore. It took 10+ mins for the poor sales drone to try every table in the store before he found the one that could actually still print receipts.

So I got to be the smart ass who said on the way out "goodness printing a receipt isn't that complex, i thought apple was a technology company."

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#490

Post by robotresearcher »

mr_cyborg wrote: post #198
hghid wrote: post #197

Slightly tangential rant, but is anybody else becoming frustrated with the process of buying Apple products in Apple stores? For me, it started with the Apple Watch - I knew which one I wanted and was ready just to head down and buy one, but I was forced to sit through an entire "fitting" with patronising explanation on how to use the knob on the the side. Recently, I wanted to buy a new Phone. Again, I knew the one…

The Genius Bar also takes forever to get appointments at now compared to how it was. I think they maintained close to the same number of retail locations as their customer base exploded, which probably works out better economically but is far less convenient.

Apple grew from ~300 to ~500 stores between 2010 and 2020.

https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2021/3/10/the-future-of-ap...

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