That is marketing. The same thing will happen with notebooks if the holiday crowd no longer purchases them.
It isn't marketing. It is retailing common sense. If 90% of the folks coming into the store to buy an ipod , iphone then you put ipods and iphones out there for them to buy , pick up , and leave the store. Apple's store are typically overcrowded as it is. Packing more people into the store is far more likely to violate fire codes and to make them even more noisy.
Apple's sales per store are very high.... which means they sell lots of stuff with relatively low square footage (given the amount of sales). Throw on top of that that a decent portion of the store is devoted to product trouble shooting with customers .... and there isn't enough room.
For the latest, even bigger , standard store there is far less "remove xxx" for holiday sales rush. However, for the vast majority of the stores in operation they typically too small. This is a store logistics issue not some "marketing" thing.
It doesn't make sense to build the store for "max" holiday season capacity for the whole years. That is just wasteful. The vast majority of the year they won't be able to fill the store with people. The store looking busy most of the year is a bit of "marketing". Overcrowded is a problem.
I always felt they bought up software companies to market hardware.
It has been put forward by many but not well supported by the facts. Apple doesn't really sell hardware in and of itself. There are now no BTO option asking which OS you want. Even the "sever" variations of the OS are spun out into a different product option "good, better, server" rather than being some BTO checkmark. They are selling the combination not the hardware.
There used to be some "BTO" sever options (chosing Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server ) but even still there is nothing like HP or Dell's "Windows or Linux " kinds of options on variation.
Apple's stabs at A/UX largely came when the company was in the morass of the 90's. That being illustrative of what core Apple strategy is deeply suspect.
As the Mac market share was imploding Apple did buy some software to make sure the Mac (hardware+software) ecosystem had some decent variety in the few areas they were able to cover. That was a "finger in the dike" tactic not a long term strategy. Steve Jobs was also a "full time" Pixar CEO so he mainly bought finger in the dike packages that were related to his other "full time" job.
The more expansive software values adds were holistic system moves. iTunes completed the integration of the system composed of a Mac + iPod. It was a completion of the iPod. The iPod didn't become a break away success until iTunes weaved Windows PC into that holistic equation along with a shift to USB connectivity.
People try to label a Mac sale as being a hardware sales. that is kind of myopic. Microsoft ranks in billions on Windows PC sales. There is a very substantive charge in every Mac and iOS device sold for OS X and iOS respectively.
Where there is a competitive, growing OS X and iOS ecosystem where prices are in the affordable range you'll large see Apple let the 3rd parties just sell into the market. If the prices won't fall and the utility is generally useful they make a buy. Likewise if it is something that could be an OS service ( e.g., Siri ) they will make buys.
Apple has gotten so big now that some of these are just acquihire. The software many not even see light of day. They just need a cohesive team to work on project/product.
Aperture and iWork pushed on price points. Lightroom is more affordable now. Microsoft Office is also. That makes the Mac ecosystem more competitive. That's the primary Apple goal. It happens to directly put more money in their pocket also.
Apple's rant against Flash and now Java are more pushes against clogged competition than aimed at selling more hardware.
for people hoping to upgrade early this year, I guess.
