Former Apple Retail Chief Ron Johnson’s time at JC Penney was not a good one for the company. Johnson tried to revamp the retailer’s image from a clearing house for cheap junk sold at discounted prices during an endless spree of “sales” and “coupons” into a refined boutique, a store-within-a-store retail concept similar to the Apple Store.
The result? A $ 12.99 billion year-over-year decline in revenue that got Johnson fired as CEO after his first year on the job. [Read More...]
The hardware controller for Leap Motion’s futuristic gesture tech was slated to arrive in stores on May 19th. Â Now Leap Motion is having to delay its public release until July 27th. The reason for the delay is the need for more beta testing and integration with partners who will support the gesture-based platform.
In case you haven’t seen any of the demos, Leap Motion is incredibly cool. It allows you to control your Mac using Minority Report-style hand movements. Â Developers [Read More...]
Here’s some fantastic analysis on what ex-Apple retail chief Ron Johnson did wrong at JC Penney written by legendary Apple ad man Ken Segall, who completely rejects the idea that Ron Johnson didn’t understand JC Penney’s brand identity, and even wandered around quoting the company’s founder, who detested sales gimmicks. So what was the problem?
According to Segall — and this is a fantastic point — Johnson’s problem was that he [Read More...]
Now that former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson has been fired from his CEO gig at JC Penney, there’s a lot of talk about whether or not the man who created the juggernaut of Apple’s retail experience will return to Cupertino, to fill the very role he vacated back in 2010.
In an interview with Bloomberg, former Apple CEO John Sculley was asked about what Ron Johnson should do now. Sculley notes [Read More...]
The Big Jambox is pretty much the rockingest portable Bluetooth speaker you can get, but at $ 299, it’s not cheap. If you don’t mind a couple of minor aesthetic blemishes, though, you can now get a Big Jambox for about the price of the regular Jambox: around $ 158.
The deal is being made over at All4Cellular, which is offering the Big Jambox speaker (refurbished) for about half off in Graphite [Read More...]
How does one go from leading the world’s most profitable retail division to a London-based clothing retailer? Just ask John Browett. He spent less than six months as Apple’s senior VP of retail. Before Tim Cook brought him on at the beginning of 2012, Browett was the CEO of Dixons in Britain. After getting fired this past fall, Browett has returned to his roots.
The former Apple senior executive has accepted [Read More...]
Jerry McDougal (right) outside of an Apple Store in 2004.
The recent departure of John Browett has left Apple searching for a new senior executive to lead its retail division. Internally, Apple has had a couple of execs who could fit the bill. One of the top contenders, retail VPÂ Jerry McDougal, has now left Apple for personal reasons.
McDougal’s replacement will be VP of Finance Jim Bean, according to an official statement provided [Read More...]
A new report from Reuters takes to the streets (or, malls, rather) of the globe to find out what folks are actually purchasing from retail shops around the world, including Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung retail spaces in cities like Sydney, Seattle, Palo Alto, Shanghai, Bangalore, Singaporte, Paris, London, Mexico City, and Boston. They spoke to store employees and retail shoppers to find out, really, what’s selling and what’s not.
Guess what they [Read More...]
An Apple Store in Hong Kong goes (RED).
Today is December 1st, which means that it is World AIDS Day, “an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died.” Apple has been a longtime partner with the Global Fund and (RED), and today Apple Stores around the world are honoring World AIDS Day by literally [Read More...]
So, I sold my iPad mini WiFi today, in hopes I could head to my local Apple retail store and pick one up. My friend was headed down to the store to pick hers up, so I figured there were plenty in stock. Just to be safe, I gave them a call to check on the availability of the 16G model LTE that I wanted to purchase.
The local Apple rep that [Read More...]
