They are sooo smart …
On one hand I am always amazed at the sheer marketing “genius” and reach of Apple and how it never ceases to amaze me that one company can drum up such fierce loyalty and drama for their products. And on the other hand I am constantly amazed that as smart as one company can be in certain areas, they can be so damned stupid in others.
One only had to read the mountain of blog posts and news stories to understand that their would be great demand for the 3g iPhone. I am sure Apple knew this was coming, yet the seemed utterly unprepared. now I understand their are supply chain logistics that I probably dont totally grasp, but it seems to me fairly obsurd that there are STILL lines to buy the iPhone nearly three weeks after its initial launch.
I will admit I made 2 trips to the mall over the last couple of weeks to pick up a 16GB black iPhone, only to find long, extremely long lines. My thought was always, “How the hell do I know if I wait in this long ass line, that I will get the model that I want?” That alone kept me away.
So I was shocked to see this post over at iPod Observer about how Apple is now using a voucher system at the stores !! Brilliant. It took the company who made $1 billion in profit last quarter 3 weeks to noodle this system out ? They all must have been busy trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with their MobileMe fiasco ….
According to the post
The vouchers are handed out to customers starting at the beginning of the line and note which iPhone 3G capacity and color each customer wants. If the day’s inventory of a specific model is already sold out or accounted for through vouchers, potential customers will know before they get in the store, making it easier for shoppers to decide if waiting in a potentially hours-long line is worth their time.
So now those poor idiots at the back of the line know that when they get to the front of the line, they actually have an iPhone to take home …
It is truly sad it took this long to come up with this tremendously complicated solution ! Great job Apple.
