Great news !!! Apple being sold to more military members now!

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Aloha everyone,

For the past few months, Apple products, namely the Mac Mini, iMac, MacBook, and 15" MacBook Pro, have been sold in the Navy Exchange at Pearl Harbor (I don't know about the Exchange at Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) at Kaneohe), but have been conspicuously absent from any of the Army and Air Force bases on the island, which is not altogether surprising - the Navy Exchange (NEX) system is completely separate from the Army Air Force Exchange System (AAFES), and different product sets are seen at the difference stores (although there is a lot of commonly-sold products). My wife informed me today that it is no longer the case, however. She was at the BXtra on the base at Hickam AFB, and she said that Macs, at least both iMacs and laptops, are being sold there as well. I will check the PX on the base at Schofield Barracks (where I work) on Monday to verify that all exhanges are selling Apple products.

All in all, this is GREAT news !!! As a retired sailor myself, I am a bit biased towards my military brothers and sisters, but I applaud both the NEX and AAFES organizations for offering Apple as well as "the other guys." If only Apple would offer something like a Panasonic Toughbook, we may be able to get the mlitary to actually use Macs on a wide-scale basis. Still, this is a great first step.

HawaiiMacAddict

 

[Alienfood]

Thats Cool!

I wonder if they also sale the Mac Pro?

 

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Well, I was just at Hickam AFB today, but didn't see a Mac Pro. They had the 17" and 20" iMac as wel as a white MacBook and a 15" MacBook Pro. On the positive side, I think I convinced a former co-worker to buy one of the laptops

One of my current co-workers told me that the Pearl Harbor NEX has the 24" iMac - he seems really impressed with it, and may actually be considering purchasing it. After all, he sees me with my MacBook Pro at work every day, and how Keynote blows away Power Point

HawaiiMacAddict

 

[dmw007]

Very good news HawaiiMacAddict!

I wonder what percentage of their sales have been Macs?

 

[HawaiiMacAddict]

The percentage is pretty minimal thus far, but Macs have only been in the military exchange system for the past few months. Adding to that is that, at least with respect to Hickam AFB, PCs outnumber the Macs by a factor of about 12 to 1. It's a bit better at Pearl Harbor - in retrospect, Hickam is starting out like Pearl Harbor, and now Pearl Harbor has the 24" iMac, which has drawn quite a lot of interest.

The other glaring problem is that neither Exchange system has any Mac software - everything is still PC-centric, as it were. This will not be a quick adoption process, but I think that it will be good for Apple in the long run. A lot of my military brothers and sisters, who primarily shop at the military Exchanges, have wee little ones and getting them used to using a Mac early is the right thing to do.

I've seen it elsewhere on these forums - Mac OS X is like crack, but the GOOD kind hehehe

HawaiiMacAddict

 

[2jessica]

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[liptonlover]

I thought it's even cooler that Touch's are making it to the military because it's the first consumer product to meet and even exceed army standards based on durability (with a case), usability, application, etc.