'The cult' of Apple: On the frontline
Apple is expert in the art of controlling the message. One of the reasons for this it seems is because they tell so few people what is going on, including all those guys and gals working in their network of stores. In a wide-ranging interview with Popular Mechanics, an anonymous member of staff has now lifted the lid on life inside an Apple store, from how it can feel like working for a "cult" to how speculating about possible product upgrades and launches could land them in the firing line.
"We are completely in the dark until they do a keynote speech. We have no idea what is coming and are not allowed to openly speculate. You can get into serious trouble if you speculate - especially to a customer. I am asked five times per day about the next iPad or iPhone, and I quite simply don't know."If you talk to the press or speculate to a customer about the next iPad? That's the end of you."
Read the full interview here.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~24~RS~)
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'In other news...'
In this case, literally.
Nice of PM to share.
But then, looking at a few comments, maybe that was the idea?
'How much did Apple pay this website for this advertisement?'
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Maggie Shiels.
while I can imagine that working for Apple is a bit like being a member of a "cult", I don't much credit the opinions of a snot-nosed kiddie who says:
"We get a lot of drug dealers who try to buy iPhones with fake IDs. You can tell them instantly just by how shady they act.."
if that's typical of the attitude Apple staff have towards their customers...
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Actually the Apple employee in the interview sounds a little more rounded in their attitude and approach than the 'cult' label suggests. As a description of the daily experiences of working in an Apple Store I would have liked to read more interviews. I suspect there's a half decent book in that.
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I could see it really making sense to follow these kind of rules. False rumors being started is a huge issue. Damage control on rumors could likely be very expensive to deal with.
Covering your bases does not make you cult like although I see apple as being very effective in their marketing and public image to pretty extreme extents.
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Their marketing is quite brilliant - Take this case I came across yesterday:
A very large company in this country has taken the laptops from all it's sales staff and replaced them with iPads.
The staff absolutely hate them. They find trying to type up sales notes slow and inaccurate. Even sitting working on a train is awkward. When presenting to clients, rather than a nice laptop screen, the client has to peer at the little iPad one (consequently some staff are now using their personal laptops in ADDITION to the ipad, meaning they are lugging around two devices).
So the apple marketing machine has managed to persuade a company to buy several hundred bits of kit that is completely unsuitable for the need.
There is also the problem that getting tied down to Apples way of working means that every time something is upgraded the company will be forced not only to pay for upgrades but possibly replace hardware.
This seems like seriously bad buying decisions to me all round.
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Hastings, @5. This is an interesting story - but it's not exactly balanced. I have an iPad and supposed to be a laptop. In fact, for many jobs it's far superior to a laptop; for others it's completely useless.
Horses 4 courses.
There's a lot of sour grapes behind this story - I would bet if we dug a little deeper there's more going on here than your report suggests: perhaps a reluctance to move from Windows XP to iOS4 - some people hate transition; and that in and of itself could mean the company made the wrong choice.
But don't blame the hardware when there's so much more at play.
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Hi Maggie, it's not a cult, It's good Product Management. Steve Jobs is one of the world's best Product Managers, if not the best. I don't fund Apple is any way but I give credit where credit is due.
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