Why does apple bring down its store

[maflynn]

Maybe a moot point or a rhetorical question, because who can really answer this but apple but why in the world do they bring down the site just to update its products.

Its kind of lame to bring it down for several hours only for one product.

 

[Peace]

CNN wants to know also.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/09/apple.aperture/index.html?hpt=T2

 

[Arran]

Maybe a moot point or a rhetorical question, because who can really answer this but apple but why in the world do they bring down the site just to update its products.

Its kind of lame to bring it down for several hours only for one product.

Well, it gets everyone excited

 

[maflynn]

Well, it gets everyone excited

Yes, but as seen by the iPad announcement its not needed. Besides, that excitement was not well placed since people were excited because of the new laptops. When that didn't happen, people were pissed. To put it another way, apple is regularly pissing people off because they bring down the store.

 

[belvdr]

No, people were upset by the lack of new hardware. The store being down is not related to that.

 

[localoid]

Some people claim there are places of earth where life does not stand still during the time when the Apple store is down. I know it sounds bizarre, but they insist that babies are born, that bees go about buzzing, that rivers keep flowing, and that the sun still continues its journey across the sky. Yes, I know its very difficult to believe, but at least 99.9% of the people I know claim its true. Has the whole world gone mad?

 

[Peace]

Some people claim there are places of earth where life does not stand still during the time when the Apple store is down. I know it sounds bizarre, but they insist that babies are born, that bees go about buzzing, that rivers keep flowing, and that the sun still continues its journey across the sky. Yes, I know its very difficult to believe, but at least 99.9% of the people I know claim its true. Has the whole world gone mad?

A good percentage of posters on MR seem to have gone mad.

 

[steve2112]

Some people claim there are places of earth where life does not stand still during the time when the Apple store is down. I know it sounds bizarre, but they insist that babies are born, that bees go about buzzing, that rivers keep flowing, and that the sun still continues its journey across the sky. Yes, I know its very difficult to believe, but at least 99.9% of the people I know claim its true. Has the whole world gone mad?

Keep up with that heresy, and you'll be excommunicated from the Church of Apple!

 

[Arran]

Yes, but as seen by the iPad announcement its not needed. Besides, that excitement was not well placed since people were excited because of the new laptops. When that didn't happen, people were pissed. To put it another way, apple is regularly pissing people off because they bring down the store.

Sorry, I was kidding. Your original question is a good one and I don't know the answer. Do other online stores go down like this? I can't think of any. So yes, it seems odd.

A good percentage of posters on MR seem to have gone mad.

Sign me up! <howls like wolf-baby from e-trade superbowl advert>

 

[mstrze]

Sorry, I was kidding. Your original question is a good one and I don't know the answer. Do other online stores go down like this? I can't think of any. So yes, it seems odd.

I do believe other stores do indeed go down. I think I can recall Best Buy being down before, and I know for a fact that my bank website goes offline every few months or so for a 3-6 hours period for maintenance.

 

[bobr1952]

As I mentioned in another thread, I have to believe a certain amount of hype goes into the Apple decision. Sure some sites go down periodically for various reasons, but for simple product changes, it would seem they could avoid it--Amazon never seems to need to close for product adjustments.

 

[eawmp1]

1) It's an attempt to crash the MR servers (did you SEE the wild speculation flying around here when the store was down).
2) Steve has to do a full mantra chant with each update, no matter how small (takes him awhile)
3) None of the geeks at Apple can spell..."is it Aperture 3...Aprechore 3...Applechurn 3...damn, just Google it and get the correct name on the store ASAP"

 

[maflynn]

Sorry, I was kidding. Your original question is a good one and I don't know the answer. Do other online stores go down like this? I can't think of any. So yes, it seems odd.

While you may have been joking others have seriously used that reason, so that's why I thought you weren't kidding around

Generally no, I cannot recall seeing anything go down. I mean if amazon did it, it would be crazy. I've seen bestbuy update its system w/o needing to bring down its whole store offline. Toysrus remains online as well.

While back in the day when the intarweb was new. it may have made sense but now? not so much

 

[spice weasel]

I can't think of any other large online retail sites that are taken down to update products. However, think of it this way: you get online and decide to purchase Aperture. You download it and start playing around. Bam! A few minutes later you see that Apple has updated it to version 3.

At the very least, seeing that the store is down prevents you from buying something that is going to be updated in the VERY near future.

 

[yg17]

I can't think of any other large online retail sites that are taken down to update products. However, think of it this way: you get online and decide to purchase Aperture. You download it and start playing around. Bam! A few minutes later you see that Apple has updated it to version 3.

At the very least, seeing that the store is down prevents you from buying something that is going to be updated in the VERY near future.

You could still be unlucky enough to have bought it right before the store went down though.

I don't get it either, surely they could add/update products with the store still up. If Amazon took down their site whenever they were adding or changing products, I don't think their site would ever be up.

 

[pdjudd]

At the very least, seeing that the store is down prevents you from buying something that is going to be updated in the VERY near future.

Not to mention that Aperture is also a BTO option on all the Mac's - lots of products need to be updated. It's just easier to take the whole thing down for a small period and update everything instead of missing something.

Not to mention it has the added bonus of generating discussion.

You could still be unlucky enough to have bought it right before the store went down though.

Yes, but there is going to be some hard line no matter when it gets updated.

I don't get it either, surely they could add/update products with the store still up. If Amazon took down their site whenever they were adding or changing products, I don't think their site would ever be up.[/quote]


Amazon and Apple have very different approaches to selling products and services - the two aren't very comparable. For one thing, Amazon is a distributor, they do not make physical products..

 

[maflynn]

Amazon and Apple have very different approaches to selling products and services - the two aren't very comparable. For one thing, Amazon is a distributor, they do not make physical products..

Why does it matter that Apple makes the product and then sells it online. Either way they have an order processing system that they take down just to update it, where as Amazon (and seemingly everyone else) is able to update a web page without bringing down the entire system.

 

[kdarling]

Maybe a moot point or a rhetorical question, because who can really answer this but apple but why in the world do they bring down the site just to update its products.

I think basically because they're not an internet company. (Which makes me think they're going to have to hire some experts for their giant server farm in NC.)

Its kind of lame to bring it down for several hours only for one product.

Very lame. Almost as lame as when the iPhone activation servers would be offline about once or twice a month for an entire weekend at a time... meaning anyone who bought or restored an iPhone couldn't get it working again until Monday.

 

[pdjudd]

Why does it matter that Apple makes the product and then sells it online. Either way they have an order processing system that they take down just to update it, where as Amazon (and seemingly everyone else) is able to update a web page without bringing down the entire system.

Because it changes their philosophy and sales technique when you are a seller and manufacturer. Apple and Amazon are two different companies with different focuses. Their only comparison is that they sell stuff. Their approach is just different. Amazon sells things differently than Apple does and at a different scale - their approach cannot tolerate the kind of downtime that Apple exploits.

It's different and by design. Lots of companies do that and there is nothing "wrong" about it. Apple's goals are more in sales presentation - that says "we can afford to be down for an hour to change things"

 

[samiwas]

Why does it matter that Apple makes the product and then sells it online. Either way they have an order processing system that they take down just to update it, where as Amazon (and seemingly everyone else) is able to update a web page without bringing down the entire system.

There is a difference in one aspect. Generally, Amazon sells single products. When they add a new product, they just add that one product. It doesn't affect anything else on their site, for the most part.

Apple, on the other hand, sells many integrated products. When they add a new display, they may need to update the pages for each and every product that deals with that display. When they announce new software, they must update the build-to-order pages to include that software. But they can't update the pages while the store is open and someone may be actively buying a new system. In that case, they would be changing pages that people are currently using...that would cause some issues. Yes, technically, a page is loaded then changes don't affect it, but what if you reload, or go back and come back to that page, etc?

I think this may be why they close the store while updating whereas Amazon does not. Make sense?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

There is a difference in one aspect. Generally, Amazon sells single products. When they add a new product, they just add that one product. It doesn't affect anything else on their site, for the most part.

Apple, on the other hand, sells many integrated products. When they add a new display, they may need to update the pages for each and every product that deals with that display. When they announce new software, they must update the build-to-order pages to include that software. But they can't update the pages while the store is open and someone may be actively buying a new system. In that case, they would be changing pages that people are currently using...that would cause some issues. Yes, technically, a page is loaded then changes don't affect it, but what if you reload, or go back and come back to that page, etc?

I think this may be why they close the store while updating whereas Amazon does not. Make sense?

No. The technology exists to do this without taking the store down. Apple chooses to do it because it creates excitement. Taking the store down is as good as free advertising for them.

 

[jaw04005]

Last time I heard, Apple used a combination of hand coding using BBEdit and WebObjects to run the Apple and iTunes Store. They don't use a traditional content management system (like Drupal).

They take the entire iTunes Store down also when they update it.

 

[greygray]

For fun, to attract attention and to cause Mac rumor sites to slow down to a crawl.