thinkdifferent's Profile

The Apple Store is great because Apple employees DON'T try to "close the deal". Doing so would almost certainly rush a number of important decisions that the customer has to make. To support my point, here's an example from my experience at an Apple Store. I went in to look at an iPod, but I noticed that they had Final Cut Pro on display. Since my research has evolved to include a fair amount of digital videography, I was curious whether Final Cut Pro would be of any use to me in speeding up the time it takes to convert dv tapes to quicktime files. The guy showing me the iPod found the resident FCP expert, who quickly convinced me FCP wouldn't help me at all. But, he mentioned in passing, capturing dv to the computer itself (in plain old iMovie) might speed up my workflow. I looked into what I needed when I got home, and it turned out that I'd have to get a new Titanium with a big hard drive. Based on the Apple Store employee's information, my research assistants might get twice as much work done, making the new laptop pay for itself in a matter of weeks. I bought one from the Apple Store on-line, and it turned out the Apple Store employee was wrong--we were able to get FOUR times more work done. The key wasn't getting a new computer by itself: it was knowing how the whole process works. By taking the time to figure out my needs, the Apple Store employee not only made a much bigger sale than the one I was inquiring about, but earned my trust--which is worth a lot more in the long run.