“I was saddened by the timeline announced for shutting down CompUSA, but wasn’t in the least surprised,” John Dvorak writes for MarketWatch.
“As I have said in columns here and elsewhere, the idea of a computer megastore working is sketchy. Investors in Apple Inc. should pay attention,” Dvorak writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Thanks, but we’ll pass on advice from the world’s preeminent bloated gas bag who once stated, “The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a mouse. There is no evidence that people want to use these things.”
Regardless of the complete uselessness of his advice and his total lack of integrity, Mr. “I Bait Mac Users For Hits” plods on with, “I have been to CompUSA dozens of times and rarely found what I needed. The store cannot carry enough weird cables or esoteric tanks of printer ink; no one can.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple obviously can, you oaf.
Dvorak continues, “Competing with the Internet. Most savvy computer users shop for much of their hardware online. The Net works like a mall in a way that makes it hard to compete. Say you have some random item you need to find. A search engine will locate the one merchant that has it.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, John, and for Apple, 9 times out of 10, that would be Apple Store Online. How will Apple ever manage to compete?
Dvorak’s not done yet, “My concern is that the Apple stores are getting too big… It began these high-end stores with the spectacular glass-cube place in New York — an architectural delight on very expensive 5th Avenue real estate — and now has fancy new digs in the meatpacking district, incorporating a stunning, three-story glass staircase. While things are all working out for Apple during the iPod era, if there is any sort of slump the company will have to deal with what could be a herd of white elephants. It’s something investors need to monitor.”
Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention for the heads up.]
Surely Apple investors are hanging upon John Dvorak’s every utterance. After all, this is the man who said in 1998, “Folks, the Mac platform is through – totally,” which, of course, means that AAPL has only multiplied about 25 times since John delivered his sage advice. Yes, Apple investors, especially those who listened to him in 1998, simply must love John Dvorak. More recently, the Round Mound of Unsound advised Apple to “Pull the plug on iPhone.” More great advice, John.
Newsflash: Apple knows what they’re doing and John C. Dvorak, as usual, knows nothing about Apple.
A few flagship stores in large cities is hardly “getting too big” and Apple’s retail store network is nothing at all like CompUSA’s was. Was. Apple’s stores generate over four times the sales per square foot of Best Buy, over seven times those of Neiman Marcus, and 66% more than Tiffany’s! CompUSA stores are currently generating liquidation sales; probably their best sales in years.
Does he know that Apple Stores are NOT computer megastores? They are nothing like a big-box retailer
The Apple stores are much more to Apple then Retail outlets (though they are that and very profitable at that) the Apple Stores about visibility of the Apple Brand. The stores reflex that brand and enforce that brand among the consumers. The Apple Stores are about adverting and making the Apple Brand a more of a household brand. They are not about selling the odd cable that a PC Geek might need to build his own computer system. On the sales side the stores sell and promote Products designed and or works for Apple Products and Apple Products.
The Internet is great for selling everything but to sell Apple Products you need to get them in the hands of the Windows Users and answer their questions fully. Best Buy, Fry’s and CompUSA who sell Macs also try to steer who be Mac buyers to the Windows PCs because that is what they know and they can’t answer questions about the Mac or the MacOS.
@ Hm…
Whatever the case… I’m not defending the man’s career by any stretch. But I think most people don’t really get the subtext of his reviews.
One thing is for sure, he’s NO John Galt.
@ max and paddy,
Didn’t know that you mac lot had a firm.
Maybe your firm can meet me and my firm. It’d be fun to see who had the most game blokes, the mac heads or the football lads…
“My concern is that the Apple stores are getting too big…
Ever been to a Super Wal-Mart, Johnny? Their foyer alone is bigger than many Apple Stores.
It began these high-end stores with the spectacular glass-cube place in New York — an architectural delight on very expensive 5th Avenue real estate — and now has fancy new digs in the meatpacking district, incorporating a stunning, three-story glass staircase.
It’s called CLASS, moron! Perhaps cookie-cutter blandness with every inch calculated for sales (again, Wal-Mart) would be better?
Anyone can build cheap, few can build good. Kinda amazing when even Apple’s storefronts reflect this.
Gotta love the Rand…
“the Round Mound of Unsound”
MDN,
I’m telling Charles and he’s gonna come kick your @$$!
My sphincter made me do it.
Obviously Mr. Dvorak knows little, or nothing, about the Apple Stores. First of all, everything in the store works. Need help on using an application ? Not a problem, the in-store staff can show you. Want to see how the computer connects online ? No problem. All of the Macs are on line. Need one-to-one training, still no problem. As long as Apple concentrates on the customer and doesn’t lose that focus, they will be around for a long time.
Dvorak’s right about shopping online. Apple Stores are full retail because they can get away with it. I’ve never bought anything at an Apple Store.
Independent Apple retailers are doing okay because they offer customer service and repair. You can’t even get anyone on the phone at an Apple Store. You have to leave a message and wait for a call back.
CompUSA is the pits though. They should have gone big in consumer electronics (TVs, Stereos, DVDs, CDs etc) like Circuit City did.
As far as what Dvorak said about a mouse way back when, he was right. At the time, there was no evidence, now there is.
Dvorak is to the tech world as people like George Will, Richard Cohen, Jonah Goldberg, David Ignatius, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, and Thomas Friedman (creator of the Friedman Unit) are to foreign policy, especially the Iraq War. Their pronouncements and predictions have been dead, flat wrong for the past five years, yet they still get to continue their punditry…in the pages of our most influential newspapers.
We must continue to call these people out–the Dvoraks, Enderles, and Thurrotts of the tech world. Surely, they will someday pay the price for their ineptitude and idiocy.
@ ChrissyOne
I was just enjoying your Rand pointer – I agree with you. He’s happy when anyone falls for his galling troll-bait. To think he used to write a column for a Mac mag!
Even if and when the day comes that Apple has to close all of their retail stores, they will have made so much money off of them that it won’t really matter. The properties values will be astronomical by then (if they aren’t already) and will bring a tidy profit. No problem.
I was wondering why this jerk has been quiet for SOOoooo long.
Where has he been?
@ Jerry T
problem with you football lot is your no good in a real 1 – 1 scrap… just group messy brawling… so uncouth.
one of ours – 1-1 against all of yours… game over.
Hey, what happened to the stars?
“I was wondering why this jerk has been quiet for SOOoooo long. Where has he been?”
Steve Ballmer forgot the safety word. There was a great deal of pain. A blackout. A few EMTs. A dozen roses. Then, he wrote this.
Ballmer calls it “Wednesday Without the Wife”.
This guy is a fat oaf that refuses to shut the hell up. I have no respect for this assclown. Why he allowed to write in any publication is beyond comprehension.
How can one compare compare CompUSA with Apple Retail? CompUSA failed because they tried to compete with the likes of Best Buy, their stores were filthy and dark, and they were terrible at customer service. In contrast, Apple stores are fun to shop at, brightly lit, clean, well staffed with knowledgeable employees and they have a specific set of products rather than selling “everything”.
Dvorak is a moron of epic proportions who just does this to screw with our minds. I’m just as guilty as the next guy for letting him get under my skin, but he can accomplish this by just standing there with that stupid smirk on his face.
anti-creative cretin: Nice. But you have got to stop bogarting the stash.
What a pc-biased fanboy shill.
Comparing Apple stores to a chain of computer megastores makes about as much sense as comparing a sports car to an 8-passenger road hog. What a moron!
Come to think of, perhaps he’s trolling for click generation. He needs some extra Christmas money to replace all the return Zunes he is giving to his relatives with iPods after Christmas day. LOL
Oh SH*TE!!!!!! Sell your shares everyone! Apple is going down because they are spending all their money on new fancy stores which generate huge marketing in their locations! What was Apple thinking, creating a buzz about their products? Are they stupid? Their billions of dollars are just gonna fade away because of the big store – Whilst sales continue to grow!
Make sense? I think not. This guy is a twot (don’t ask me what a twot is, i just thought it sounded cool). Some people make me laugh. This guy didn’t, he just made me feel sorry for him for being so ridiculously stupid.
Yet another sensationalist windbag has vomited up a rag article. Everyone, rejoice!
Comparing CompUSA to the retail Apple Store is about as incompetent as anyone can get. Problem is, all those CompUSA hirelings have to go somewhere, and let’s hope no-one in charge of hiring at Apple considers them for one breath. It’s bad enough a failed business model is unleashing its hordes on an otherwise unsuspecting IT zone, like major universities, including one, to remain crimsonally nameless, in Cambridge, MA.