Apple banning Facebook in all retail stores

[smooth]

I have only been to an Apple store 3 times and all 3 times they were packed. From what I hear, the stores are always busy. So it makes sense to try to keep their demo units as just that - not letting them serve as public access terminals.

I am also surprised by the anti-Facebook comments on here. I only recently signed up, but it's a convienent way to keep in touch with friends and it's cool to re-connect with old acquaintances. However, I do see a trend with the younger generation who feel that their lives, thoughts, opinions, etc should be everyone else's top priority. Because they blog, they are experts on whatever it is they are talking about. Because they can update their status, everyone is dying to know what they are doing at any give moment. I see the me-me-me mentality on these boards too sometimes. Quite often I've seen this disclaimer to start off a post - "I didn't read any other replies but..." as if other posts are not nearly as important or as insightful as what they have posted.

There's my social commentary for the week....

 

[odinsride]

I think this is a good thing. Damn teenagers and their music, and their Facebook.

 

[GeekLawyer]

And you kids get off my lawn!

 

[LinMac]

This is great.

I've been waiting to buy an iMac until after the refresh and I'll be going in to buy one after that. The first thing I'm going to want to do is see Facebook on a new 24" iMac before I buy "because I want to see how nice my Facebook page looks on an iMac".

Note: I'm not even a member of Facebook or any social networking website unless you consider using Twitter as a lazy solution for downtime announcements social networking.

 

[DYER]

I am quite pleased they took that decision...I can remembr when I was considering what display to get I had a group of school children around the damned thing and they just wouldn't move despite me asking em nicely... they were all logging into facebook.... i then undertook some drastic measures (i killed the mbp by casually pressing the powerbutton and telling em they broke it - never seen kids disperes so quickly lol) i then finally had my time ti inspect it... lucky i did as i went for an older ACD in the end ^^

Good move on apple though

 

[sushi]

Good for Apple. Like their decision.

 

[Niiro13]

Maybe it's just me, but I haven't seen any use of Facebook in Apple Stores...

I hope they don't ban Google...I still use that to compare products.

 

[xioxyx]

Why not just allow facebook on a limited no of machines?

 

[overcast]

Consider it the user's way of acknowledging his or her own shortcomings.

"I facebook" = "I provide information about myself on the Internet, but I rely on the lackadaisical privacy policy of a third party to override social conventions about information I distribute to or expect from others."

"I google" = "I search on the Internet from only one place, because I'm unaware of meta-search tools or domain specific search tools that are more likely to get me what I want. I measure reliability according as ordering of Google search results."

"I podcast" = "I make a video/audio stream available on demand while displaying an ignorance of or affinity for Apple's lawyer strongarming (over use of the three letters `pod'). This all reflects my lack of recognition of the history of Internet streaming media and of the open principles of the Internet in general."

"I blog" = "I write an online journal, then inflate its importance out of all proportion and make sure to use this broadcast medium - rather than thoughtful one-to-one conversation - as a channel for communicating with those whom I still dare to call friends."

The only relief is that "to Web 2.0" isn't yet a verb. I hate web apps, whether that's MobileMe's complex interface or this bulletin board (that doesn't mean I hate you or the board's content, dear sensitive reader, just the app). Use a suitable protocol for communicating the content and let people use dedicated clients suitable for the given application - so I can read all web boards in the same client, etc. The whole "but then you can use it everywhere" argument is nonsense - if Java/.net weren't such good ideas so awfully implemented then it'd be accepted practice to be able to run your set of efficient sandboxed apps anywhere by accessing your profile from any PC anywhere.

Here endeth my sermon on how the Internet should be. Tongue-in-cheek, don't kill me, etc.

You are out of touch with reality.

 

[Kar98]

Bunch of grouchy old men here

Admittedly this is not empiric data, but the teeny daughter of a friend of mine walked into an Apple store, found the Photobooth and iChat apps, and was so enthralled with both she bounced off the walls until her dad laid down the dough to get her the then new Alu iMac. Almost three stacks, with accessories and stuff.

So while I'm utterly indifferent as to whether myfacespace is blocked or not, people of all ages test-driving the product is a huge part of what sells same product. And if _you_ complain that there's always kids hanging around in the store...well, how do _you_ know? Oh, that's right, you're always hanging around in the store. Probably rubbing yourself against the teeny boppers.

 

[aristobrat]

IMO, all Apple blocking sites in stores does is teach the mall kids about proxy sites. At the Apple store near me, kids use ninjaproxy and hidemyass all of the time to get on myspace. I'm sure Facebook will be the same.

This is also going to affect the Creatives, as they won't be able to cover the iPhoto '09 uploading to Facebook feature in their One-to-Ones anymore, which is something they've been getting a lot of interest in (by the crowd that doesn't hate Facebook as much as some folks here appear to!)

 

[darthraige]

I'm all for the ban.

 

[BKroll1223]

As a former Apple Store employee I can honestly say that if Apple wants to really make a difference with the aforementioned issue, they need to consider taking Photo Booth off the machines as well.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Do people really spend that much time loitering on FaceBook. Asking b/c I really have no idea. I kinda have mixed feelings about this though. On one hand Apple isn't a Internet cafe, but on the other, isn't loitering in Apple Stores part of the experience? Isn't that part of capturing the hearts and minds of future computer buyers?

Whenever I'm at the mall, which, honestly, isn't that much, it seems the Apple Store is the only one that is really "alive." Sure much of it is people waiting to see a genius, and the so-called FaceBook loiterers, but, nonetheless, it gives the non-Apple faithful the sense that something is happening which they are missing out on. That helps the brand even if it doesn't directly sell hardware.

It seems to me if Apple is going to get rid of loiterers they are going to have to start banning a lot more sites. That will only transform it into a "hard sell" vendor, at which point I think the "buzz" generated in the store will quiet into a museum.

 

[mogzieee]

True that. Nothing more annoying when you go into an Apple store looking to buy a new Mac and all the demo units are being hounded by all these kids checking their facebooks. Why can't they just check it at home, on their phone, at a library, or something?

Quite Agree. I guess they do it at an Apple Store because it's free, and they're using a cool, quick computer

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

I wonder if it is banned when you are connected through Apple's free in store wifi on you own personal device or if it is just banned on the computers in the store.

All in all this is probably a good thing since every Apple Store I've ever been in is always crowded.

 

[PaulCJr]

Ban Youtube as well.

They need to also ban Youtube. I don't know how many times I've been in a store and these kids as well as those gangsta kids are watching music videos on the systems. They stand around playing the video really loud until someone asks them to stop. Banning Youtube will also help out this problem a lot.

 

[sishaw]

I thought Apple stores were supposed to be a place with free wifi and stuff so people can go there and hang out?

I always thought it was a store. A particularly nice store, but nonetheless a store. You know, to buy things.

 

[sishaw]

As a former Apple Store employee I can honestly say that if Apple wants to really make a difference with the aforementioned issue, they need to consider taking Photo Booth off the machines as well.

That's a trickier call because it's a feature Apple wants people to play with (and take home). But as a general matter, it is annoying if you're a serious shopper and can't try out a computer because of folks who have no intention of ever buying anything just playing around. But Apple can't big brother everything...although I think taking social networking sites off is a good move, those are real time wasters and don't particularly showcase the strengths of Apple's computers. Heck, you can social network just fine on a netbook.

Speaking for myself, when I buy my replacement for my venerable but still functional iBook, perhaps this Spring, I will probably try to get to the store at an off-peak time.

 

[::Lisa::]

Good on them! It must be frustrating for them to see random people come in and just play on the computers loading up networking websites. It's just use and abuse of what the computers are really there for.

Next they need to ban others like twitter and bebo etc.

 

[L3X]

What morons go to an Apple store to browse the net anyway? I say, just enable the Apple site and that will take care of those idiots.

 

[yamabushi]

Stupid

Potential switcher comes into store and starts to use a Mac. This customer then tries to use the internet sites they use often and finds them unavailable. "Gee, Macs suck. This Safari thing cant even load Myspace or Facebook." Customer quickly leaves store with a bad initial impression of Macs and tells their friends how they think Macs suck.

Or, to put it another way...


Young users regularly crowd into the stores to use the display models without the intention of buying soon. They begin to love the Macs and tell their friends how Macs are pretty good. They even go so far as to use the included software to post demonstrations of what can be done on social networking sites. Since word of mouth and social networking are very powerful methods of marketing a new generation of potential customers becomes interested in finding out more and maybe buying a Mac.

Then Apple shuts all of this down because stores full of people while good for business, even if they don't buy anything on that visit, makes the store too crowded. This blocks the view of the product and store interior design which destroys the the intended museum-like atmosphere. Customers obediently go away and fill up other empty stores nearby. A few loyal repeat customers get all the attention they want without having to compete with new customers. Sales growth slows down despite flashy marketing campaigns because switchers are turned away at the store.

Sure, the scenarios might be extreme but I wonder how many times something like this happens. What is the point of building a brand and luring customers in, just to turn them away before they make a purchase? The average new customer visits a store several times before they make a purchase. They also usually heard something positive about Macs from somebody besides an Apple employee.

Reminds me of when the stores were still new and I saw many people turned off by poor performance of the display model. Of course the display models at the time had the default amount of RAM which was insufficient at the time. They also usually had a dozen application open at the same time with some of them doing active work in the background. I managed to sell a few Macs to other customers in a store without trying just by pointing this out to them.

It's stupid to spend millions on advertising and and then fret over the cents it costs in bandwidth and occupied floor space in a store when the advertising works.

 

[valdore]

I'll admit I have gone to my friendly neighborhood Apple store to check and send email and whatnot when my home connection was out.

Didn't do any Facebooking though... I didn't want to see if my luck would run out.

 

[aafuss1]

Does the Facebook ban apply to US Apple stores only?

 

[Abstract]

Even if people were using demo units without any direct intention to buy at least these people have gained hands-on experience of OS X.....

Apple still allows people to use the computers for as long as they want, surf the net, etc. They just blocked Facebook. The rest of the internet is still available for you to "try". Besides, they're not going to lose a single sale because the computer at the store can't get on FaceBook.

In terms of restrictions, Apple stores are nearly unrestricted, save a few websites.