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November 21, 2002

Hawaii to get a taste of Apple?

Good riddance, CompUSA "Mac specialists." Apple seems to be planning on opening its westernmost Apple Store in Hawaii. In Ala Moana, in fact, if I'm reading the official job posting right. (You gotta love their sense of humor: "Does the thought of working for Apple make you tingle more than those three seconds right after a sneeze?")

Seattle just found out they'll be similarly blessed, and it made headlines! Part of a nationwide expansion, it seems. Thanks to Jon for the scoop!

And what a scoop it is. I let out a whoop that startled the entire family when I read it in Jon's blog. While the Apple website's list of stores (including those "coming soon") doesn't mention Honolulu, I'd say accepting resumes for people to work there makes for a pretty credible rumor.

I've experienced something close to Apple nirvana in Tokyo - where the Macintosh is worshiped in a gleaming, multi-story retail paradise - but not a genuine, company-owned Apple Store.

And having one in Hawaii, in my humble opinion, is long overdue. I'd say Mac evangelism, if not saturation, is higher than average in the islands, given a loyal and still growing population of creative professionals, artists, and plain folks with good taste.

Not only that, but Japanese tourists and other visitors from Asia have an insatiable appetite for the Mac. They might not find it convenient to pick up a G4 while on vacation, but I guarantee the Hawaii Apple Store could make a considerable chunk of change from trusty old-fashioned merchandising. An official T-shirt with the Apple logo and Diamond Head will make someone rich.

Posted by Prophet Zarquon at November 21, 2002 12:13 AM

Comments

 
Posted by Linkmeister on November 21, 2002 11:26 AM:

I like the line about the "misguided User." Hey, in OS X did they get rid of that awful bomb graphic when bad things happen?

I speak as one who donated his dead Mac Plus to KCC or somewhere for the electronic shop to play on.

 
Posted by Vivi on November 21, 2002 1:45 PM:

Hey, in OS X did they get rid of that awful bomb graphic when bad things happen?

I have no idea. Nothing bad ever happens in OS X. :) Seriously, I've never seen a Mac running OS X crash completely. It's amazing. Anyhow, if a program ever locks up, you can just close that program and then continue with whatever you're doing.

 
Posted by Ryan on November 21, 2002 3:07 PM:

While a little bird tells me today that there may be something to this rumor, it also whispers:

Keep in mind that "Mac Genius" is also the official job title of the Apple-employed person who works at the store-within-a-store at CompUSA (who, to be fair, at least locally knows his stuff -- if you get him and not one of the other lost-looking employees). And CompUSA in Honolulu is located on Ala Moana Boulevard.

Grr. Party pooper. I can still dream, right?

 
Posted by Ryan on November 21, 2002 3:14 PM:

Waitaminit...

There are also postings for "Apple Store Manager" and Assistant Store Manager" and two "Mac Specialist" positions listed, on top of the "Mac Guru" job Jon found.

Five Apple employees in Honolulu? That's no back corner of CompUSA, daddy-o!

I'm excited again!

 
Posted by Ryan on November 21, 2002 3:58 PM:

And it's official. Sort of.

Mac attack headed for Ala Moana
Apple Computer is bringing its direct retail outlet to Hawaii

As soon as I read Jon's post, I sent a tip to the Star-Bulletin. Interestingly, though, the article is still based entirely on the job listings at Apple's sites — they were unable to get confirmation from either Apple or Ala Moana management.

When it comes to breaking news, blogs lead the way once again!

 
Posted by mel on November 21, 2002 6:47 PM:

As a long time Apple user I am happy in a way that there is the possibility of an Apple Store opening in Hawaii and only mere blocks from where I live.

I am sure this may not bode very well for our 2 locally owned Macintosh dealers.. namely Mac Made Easy and Mac Mouse Club. I think an Apple store will impact negatively on Mac Made Easy, since they have from the time they opened, been an authorized Apple dealer.

BTW Vivi, Mac OSX is pretty much crash proof. When an application goes bad in OS X, it simply quits or freezes, but does not take down the entire system. All you do is go to a menu item to force quit the app and then restart it if you need it.

In the year since I bought my G4 Power Mac tower, I have had only one serious Mac OS X "bomb". Of course when this happens the OS gives you something called a "kernel panic" and shows you some gibberish from the Unix command line that lies beneath the pretty OSX Aqua desktop... and of course nothing happens.. in this case all I did was hit the reset button on the Mac for it to reboot and restart.

I have to say though, this is a very rare occurance having happened to me only once.. and what perpetuated the kernel panic was the fact that I was removing some goofy desktop files from a PC floppy disc that I stuck into my USB external floppy drive.

 
Posted by Linkmeister on November 21, 2002 8:12 PM:

Well, in fairness to Apple, I think that Mac Plus I had was still running 6.2 or thereabouts, so... ;)

 
Posted by Ryan on November 22, 2002 8:03 AM:

Ah, the Mac Plus!

When my son was in the hospital last month, I bonded with one of the doctors, who was a Mac guy. We did the ritualistic Mac guy greeting, which was the rundown of all the Mac's we've loved before.

He started with the Mac Plus. I started with the Mac SE/30. I then had torrid affairs with an LC, IIsi, LC III, Quadra 4000-series, Powerbook 165c, and a Powerbook 1400c. Sadly, I've only played with and drooled over G4-level machines (and OSX/Jaguar) - my job sucked me over to the dark side, and I've been in Windows hell ever since.

Someday, someday...

In other news, the Apple Store rumor as published in the Star-Bulletin has been picked up by MacCentral/Macworld. Still, nothing official, but let's hope repeating it makes it more true.

That article linked to this brief piece about how well Macs are doing in Hawaii, which in turn linked to this extensive article in Honolulu Business on the same topic.

 
Posted by Jon on November 22, 2002 8:49 AM:

If anyone out there has an inside track please help an under-employed teaching assistant out and get them to hire me. At least you know I'd enjoy the job.

(Yeah, I applied the other day.)

 
Posted by macpro on November 22, 2002 5:57 PM:

While I truly love working on my G4 733 Quicksilver Power Mac, I still regularly use several older Macs including a Powercenter 150 clone, a Centris 650 that I bought for $20 last year, an old Mac IIsi, Mac II, Mac SE and Mac Plus. All of these Macs I own and use from time to time. Macs are fun and most have proven to be useful beyond their expected lifetime.

 
Posted by Patrick on November 24, 2002 4:43 AM:

Mel--

I wouldn't worry about the independent Mac dealers being gobbled up if Apple does bring its retail store to Ala Moana.

Here is North Carolina we have had an Apple Store for about one year. The one independent dealer I have worked with has seen his business increase.

For one, Apple Stores do very limited instore servicing. Most all repairs are sent out. You can clearly envision service business for the independents increase, especially in Hawaii with the cost of shipping.

The Apple Store referred me to the independent retailer, and gave them high praise, when I needed my Powerbook repaired quickly. The independent was also cheaper, but still to expensive...so I replaced my G3 Powerbook with a new iMAC. I bought it from the independent guy, so score one for the little guys. The two stores work together, and not so much in competition. Like any good Mac community should.

The independent retailer told me he has seen an increase in repairs, and increase in the number of businesses who need him to do IT work on the Macs (most businesses he works with are Windows based, but more and more have a few Macs doing graphics, advertising, etc, etc but not enough to hire an IT guy full time so he has found a niche in that market--mostly new installs and interfacing Macs with Windows...not fixing crashes...they just don't occur!!).

Don't wory. My take on it is that an Apple Retail store will be good for the independent guys. I may be wrong, but I am sure that there is data from all over the country that may or may not support what has happened here in NC.

We are coming to Hawaii for Chrsitmas!!! Yeah!!! My wife's only reaction to this story...

"WE ARE NOT GOING TO SPEND OUR HAWAII VACATION IN AN APPLE STORE!!!"

No discussion permitted on my part, she just walked away. She doesn't know that the store isn't even open yet, and still a rumor, but it has already gotten me in trouble.

My Powerbook needed to be repaired when she spilled water on it. She says the water spill was accidental, but I am not so sure...

 
Posted by macpro on November 24, 2002 10:49 AM:

Patrick, thanks for your insightful post about the Apple Store vs. the independents in your area. Hopefully the situation will hold true here in Hawaii as more people have places to buy Macs from and hopefully the independents see an increase in business through repairs and other consulting services as you say.

And yes, with Mac OSX, our computers rarely if ever crash. Like I mentioned earlier, I have had only one kernel panic since I began using OSX a little more than a year ago.

 
Posted by Linkmeister on November 24, 2002 12:49 PM:

Patrick, maybe you should be glad it was "only" water. Imagine sugar-laced coffee! ;)

 
Posted by lisa on November 25, 2002 9:56 AM:

OSX does crash. It's a Shadowed Screen of Death- suddenly the desktop dims, and a white box tells you you've done something bad in hex, and please hold down the reset button for several seconds.

And you know, I would swear this Apple store is old news. I applied for that job a year ago after I was laid off. Maybe they delayed a prior planned opening?

 
Posted by Vivi on January 18, 2003 8:53 PM:

Ala Moana Center is one step closer to having an Apple Store. The space which used to be occupied by The Pocketbook Man and, more recently, Macy's Christmas store is now sporting a large white Apple logo along with the URL for Apple's website.

I think I got a bit too excited when I saw this...

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