Construction winding down, Anticipation winding up!

Well, if the looks of the outside are any indication, the inside should be coming along as well. Today, it looks like they're looking to complete the back facade of the building - and onlookers report that the glass of the front facade is going in as well.

As construction nears what looks like the final stages, the mood at TSP is one of anxiety and anticipation: What will happen when the doors open? Will we get no more walk-in service customers? Will we get a boat-load of referrals from the Apple Store business consultants looking for a Mac professional services firm? Will the Genius Bar help us rent more laptops to people that have their machines in for service? Will this city block become "Apple Central" for Boston and New England?

Probably a little bit of everything.

TSP has been working on a two-year strategy to position ourselves as the perfect complement to a flagship Apple Store: a Mac-only professional services shop with hardware service, onsite, and remote support capabilities. And it looks like we're just weeks away from seeing if that strategy will work. That work has included some fundamental changes to our business and making some bets on where we think the Apple Store will take us - so while the future of our business probably doesn't depend on this store, it's highly swayed by its existence.

Here's just a peek at some of our new services, hopefully they will help Apple succeed not just with their Apple Store, but with getting Macs into brownstones and businesses all over Boston:

- Our Managed Macs managed services suite to support pro and business Mac users for a flat monthly charge
- Increased staffing of our onsite consultants, who are pros at Leopard Server and large deployments
- Increased focus on Data Recovery and Customer Backup services
- Hard drive upgrades for older Laptops and Desktops
- Beefing up our Mac-Friendly Hosting Services, perfect for small to medium-sized Mac businesses, and running on Xserves!
- Providing Offsite Backups for Mac Servers
- A larger Rental Pool of laptops for Apple Store repair customers
- And much much more...

Tell us what you think! Will we succeed or fail? Should we pack up and get out of Dodge, or brace for the massive influx of customers? Time will tell, but one thing is for certain: Apple doesn't keep us bored!

Not Much To Look At...

Well, all the foundation work isn't giving us much to look at, although the noises are quite a bit louder than what the images make it seem.

Anyway, I'll take this visual break to bring up a new topic of discussion: the Apple Store vs. your local Apple shop. As you see, the webcam is brought to you by the folks at Tech Superpowers, which conveniently enough, is located right across the back alley from the Apple Store. Traditionally, this has been very bad news for an "Apple Specialist" like us - the Apple Store produces a giant sucking sound as your customers go running over to the mothership.

We're hoping we're different - mainly because we're not a retail store. You can walk in and get a repair done (and you don't have to wait for a genius) and we have one of the country's only all-Mac Internet Cafés - but we don't sell iPods by the cartload. So we won't lose that business. But we still have a lot to lose - even our service business could suffer by the Apple Store being so close (even though most Apple Stores don't have the time to do in-house laptop repairs).

So the question for our readers: What do you prefer? Do you care where you buy your Mac from? Where you get it repaired? Do you feel better if the person that you're dealing with has an official Apple shirt vs. a Tech Superpowers shirt? Where have you gotten your best experiences?

All those questions... but we're curious to know what our future will hold.

Mike