The assortment sure could be better, but it could also be better at Best Buy and WalMart. The stores will Never carry Every single product. Right now, Apple is prioritizing shelf space to products they deem most important and probably best selling as well. I’m not sure I can recall the last time I heard someone complain about lack of selection rather than lack of service. Apple is heavily invested in the Genius Bar and that’s proven by their decision to renovate 100 stores and expand their Bars. If you needed to get your iPod or Mac looked at and there were two stools but Every battery charger available and multiple padded briefcases, you wouldn’t care less and be here complaining about the lack of their service space. The stores are the best in the industry, and there’s a reason why Sony and Dell are trying to emulate them to the best of their abilities.

-Brian

ps: I could have included more examples about lack of product variety -

obvious examples would have been:

* quad-port enclosures
* wifi boosters
* laptop external battery/chargers
* BT or evdo PAN hubs
* solar-powered chargers
* pico (LCD) projectors
* digital pens (winner of best product at macworld!, no less).
* OCR software
* vox reco and TTS software
* KVM

…. or even somghing as simple as the dock-based tethered lanyard for the iPhone/itouch (the perfect forget-me-not cable for the absent-minded who are terrified if losing, or even just dropping, the iPhone/iPod!).

the applstore’s achievements compared to the rest of (technology) retail are just like the mac’s (osx) advantage to a pc (msft windows) – namely, more the result of the incompetence of the competition than soley an instrinsic superiority.

1) bizzare merchandising policies need to be fixed. Applestore has way too much third-party product that is almost identical in functionality – and yet doesn’t carry mist of the useful or innovative accesories that customers actually need.

* eg, rows of nearly identical mefiocre backpacks but no ‘courier bag’ models, no _reinforced_ ‘briefcase’ models for business travellers, no hardshells/clearshells (until YEARS after they are launched), etc.

* eg more inventory space for mophie’s midrange charger (the 1200mH AIR) than for any other accessory in the ENTIRE store – but not a single unit of miphie’s hlregular charger (1800mah)!

2) total lack of co-ordination between the retailstore & the webstore – separate accounting systems, separate inventory systems, separate return policies, etc!

* eg, if a product purchased from webstore dies, you can’t take it in to an retailstore for exchange, refund (or service?) – which is a very confusing customer experience for customers who want to see the two channels as one unified, integrated brand!

3) the frack’n DISK IMAGES (for the floor demo machines) are arbitrarally frozen by a guy from Cupertino who lives in a cave – so can’t be setup by (local staff) to showcase any of the cool things a mac can do!

* eg “delicious library” is an obvious no-brainer in a reatil environment cuz it can scan UPC barcodeof an accessory with the builtin mac’s iSight camera …

this work-around is the only way to get product details or reviews since the retailstore diskimage NEGLECTS to include a database of the products in the retailstore! (and the webstore’s product info is almost non-existent).

but since the sysadmin for the retailstore diskimage locks down the floor models so that they do almost nirhng interesting or useful, it is vey difficult for retail staff to impress customers with any of the gracenotes that are the true “killed apps” for selling the products.

* eg, the floor machines (siskinags) are not setup to issue a Bluetooth digital ticket to customers when arrive so that customers have the option/ability to track their movements around the floor – so they can be informed when the next salesman is free (a digital counter-service “bell”); or so they can log their comments & questions about each live interaction with a product (again, via the builtin iSight/mic) & then have these annotations emailer back to themselves (or the conceierge) as an aid-de-memoire / todo list.

* eg their is no FEEDBACK mechanism PROMINENTLY installed on the diskiages in the retailstore! – which is a major lost opportubity to harvest field ibtellugence, since the retailstore staff freely admit that Cupertino aggressively ignores their suggestions! (a pilot store in Chicago or wherever is not rich enough environment to fully understand the user experience).

4) no sharing of expertise:

* eg, it seems shockingly obvious that the applestore would have a WebObjects application for the staff to contribute their individual knowledge to the institutional memory of the the whole retail system globally – but the existing /corporate/ knowledgebase is so rigid (and berift of any serious RDF-enabled technology like kifs or OIL+DAML) that the /frontline/ staff have no _informal_ platform (like lotus notes) that can use on their own to pool their FAQ (obviously a retail knowledgebase would not have to meet the same obligations for testing/vetting & support as tfe official central knowledge basecwoykd need to do – because it would be a DIY/AFAIK model, not an ASAS model).

* eg, there no live support in-store from designated product spealists — it would seem obvious to use iChat to instantly connect the retailstore customer to apple reps at other stores (or regional T120-based call-centres) who are highly trained experts in each aspect of every product (ie like geniusbar except it is for third-party products – or maybe vendor-based experts via iChat).

most of the staff can not answer basic questions about the accessories because the robots in cupertino run the merchandising/packaging flightcheck in the same alive-in-wonderland way that the vendor approval process at the appstore is run (ie without rhyme or reason) …

eg: almost all of the battery/charger products do not contain any specific information about their actual charge capacity (in MaH), duty cycle, weight, or overcharge rate (500-1000ma is the standrard draw from a basic AC:USB adapter; however a better adapter or mobo port will be able to supply a 1500ma if the charger can support a full draw) …

the staff dont know basic product details because cupertino does not impose the same disipline on its vendors as does,say, wakmart, that has a flightcheck for every single soecification (and certainly the infomation on the packaging!) …

the bottom line is that the applestore certainly delivers a better retail experince than it’s competitors – but that isn’t saying much!

so many things are just plain broke that it is clear that sine fresh thinking is required to lead the retail platform to the next level.