Piper: Apple Stores showing 'pull' from PC?
updated 10:50 am EST, Mon November 26, 2007
Lure of Apple Stores
Holiday traffic at Apple's retail stores may reflect an increased flow of PC users migrating to Macs, say analysts with the firm Piper Jaffray. Monitoring six hours' worth of visitors to Apple Stores in the American east and midwest, the firm discovered this weekend that an abnormal 27 percent of those who passed within 25 feet of a store would walk in. On Friday afternoon, some 462 people were entering Apple Stores per hour, while by Saturday evening this rate had fallen to 241. This is likely evidence of more shopper interest, says Piper, which could lead to greater sales for Apple in 2008 and 2009.
The group notes, however, that the weekend's purchasing rate was far below the number of visitors. Approximately 5.3 Macs were sold per hour, an increase from 4.3 Macs in August; at the same time though, iPhone sales dropped slightly from 1.3 units to 1.
iPod sales dominated numerically, at a rate of 13 players an hour. The vast majority of these were Nanos, at 46 percent; Classics and Shuffles accounted for 19 percent each, while Touches amounted to 16 percent. Piper notes that Shuffles had been expected to account for a full 38 percent, marking a drastic shift towards Apple's more costly products, with the exception of the top-end Touch.
IwanaIpod IwanaIpod
11/26, 11:08am reply
Dropped by a store in Fort Lauderdale. Found it by following screams from two year old in stroller being wheeled past the store.
I wana Ipod, I wana Ipod. I wana Ipod, I wana Ipod, I wana Ipod, I wana Ipod, I wana Ipod until mom turned and entered the store.
starwarrior
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Joined: Mar 2006
Just for that...
11/26, 11:36am reply
...I'd buy that brat a Zune! :-)
kaisdaddy
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confused
11/26, 11:42am reply
Maybe I'm reading this wrong but:
"Piper notes that Shuffles had been expected to account for a full 38 percent, marking a drastic shift towards Apple's more costly products, with the exception of the top-end Touch."
The "full 38 percent" implies this is a high amount for the shuffles, but the conclusion is this marks a shift to more costly products. The shuffle is the cheapest ipod. Maybe it's just Monday, but I'm missing the point of this sentence.
simdude
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busy
11/26, 12:27pm reply
the busiest store in the Tysons Corner mall, VA is the Apple store, it is always packed, I think it has the highest visitors per square foot in the whole mall. And Tysons Corner is a very busy mall to begin with.
BelugaShark
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Re: Confused
11/26, 01:14pm reply
The quote about expecting shuffles to make up the "full 38 percent" means that instead, shuffles were only 19 percent and the other 19 percent were classics, which means people are spending more for a classic instead of a shuffle.
Clear?
nitewing98
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MacNN Pull
11/26, 02:13pm reply
A new survey has shown that MacNN is exhibiting an inordinate "gravitational pull" on stories first published by other web sites. This vacuum, determined to be the product of the combined forces of laziness and ineptitude localised within a parasitic vortex of plagiaristic distortion, has also been found to exert it's effect on unfortunate MacUser's seeking original news and information. It seems that the willing Mac receptacle, whilst particularly susceptible to the negative influences of this force, has been found to exert it's own complimentary and limiting force through the use of commentary repulsion that, although initial information is limited, appears to have a moderating effect on the plagiaristic suck of the MacNN vortex.
Feathers
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Author interview
11/26, 02:32pm reply
You may find interesting the exclusive interview I published today with Alex Frankel, the author of "Punching In." It's an account of front-line jobs he had at companies like Gap, Starbucks, UPS and Apple during a two-year project. We cover specifically his Apple Store insights:
Author interview: “Punching In” at the Apple Store http://counternotions.com/2007/11/26/punching-in-interview/
Kontra
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