| Wheii.com | Understand Change > Be in the Know

Main menu

ARCHIVE

September 2002October 2002November 2002December 2002January 2003February 2003March 2003April 2003May 2003June 2003July 2003August 2003September 2003October 2003November 2003December 2003January 2004February 2004March 2004May 2004June 2004July 2004August 2004September 2004October 2004November 2004December 2004January 2005February 2005March 2005April 2005May 2005June 2005July 2005August 2005September 2005October 2005November 2005December 2005January 2006February 2006March 2006April 2006May 2006June 2006July 2006August 2006October 2006November 2006December 2006January 2007February 2007April 2007May 2007June 2007July 2007September 2007October 2007December 2007January 2008February 2008March 2008April 2008June 2008September 2008October 2008November 2008December 2008January 2009March 2009April 2009May 2009July 2009August 2009September 2009December 2009February 2010March 2010April 2010July 2010August 2010September 2010October 2010November 2010December 2010January 2011February 2011March 2011April 2011July 2011September 2011October 2011November 2011December 2011January 2012

SUBSCRIBE

Saturday, November 08, 2003
Posted by Roberto
12:09 AM 0 comments

THINK DIFFERENT :: SHOP DIFFERENT

Yesterday I had the chance to visit Apple Computer headquarter. The first good thing is that both Apple buildings I've visited offered WLAN access. This is not very common in Silicon Valley. Last week, in Palo Alto, at the heart of Silicon Valley there was no WLAN and almost no GSM coverage. Downtown San Francisco you rely on Starbucks for wireless broadband access (big Hotels with 450 rooms still offer dialup connections). But let's go back to the Apple story. When entering one of the meeting rooms in the "Infinite Loop" building, you pass by a simple showroom (see picture above) with Apple's latest Hardware (G5) and Software (OSX Panther: Quartz, Expose, Pixlet codec, iChat). Painted on the wall you can read the following statement:

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they can change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create.Theyy inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and se a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. Think different."

Thinking differently and Shopping differently. Apple has built 69 successful Apple stores in the USA and is ready to expand in Europe and Japan. OSX has got 8 million users, 6500 Native applications and Apple has an R&D budget of about 500 million dollars. The Apple shops are state of the art, beautiful, filled with nice people that will answer your questions for free (can't say the same for Sony Metreon downtown SF, where the store manager was scared of my questions regarding my Sony UX50... and was running away). Apple is bringing Innovation to the World. The only concern I have is that these hi-end Apple shops remind me of religious cathedrals dedicated to God Innovation (a God with an Apple T-shirt :)

Apple's management is energetic, modern, the products are good, software prices are great, and their brand will definately shine downtown major cities worldwide via the aesthetically astonishing Apple stores.