Apple is intentionally turning away customers?? Can't figure out the reasoning behind this.

Was wondering the same thing. What if I don't want to buy while buying my Mac but change my mind next month? I'm SOL? Not cool, Apple.

A thread in a previous article answers some of your questions. Apple is giving fifty-two 50 minute sessions for less than $2. The short timeframe for buying 1to1 adds pressure that if you don't get it now, you cannot get it later, and they "buy from apple" ensures they recoup program costs from taking all profits from the sale. If you cannot figure-out that you need 1to1 within the first 14 days after the purchase then you either do not need it, the Mac geniuses will be adequate, or you are clueless and Apple just saved one of their representatives a lot of frustration.

I'm sure some who get it would go for a session a week, but most will probably go once a month, max, if not less. So $2 is the 'minimum' made, but that's like looking at a $20 rebate on a product saying "Man, if they sell 5000 of those, it will cost them $100,000" when we know they only end up paying out a small fraction of those purchases.

Once upon a time there was a land far away called Analogopolis where citizens actually learned how to use the products they purchased on their own or with their loved ones - and even looked forward to it.

I know this sounds selfish - but I'm happy anytime Apple reduces their need to cater to what I call "low-commitment consumers".

Then again, once upon a time there was also a land called Old Applestinkton - so I can't complain too much about Apple's new found mass-appeal. But I get the feeling that Apple is deliberately trying to balance their mass-appeal potential with their niche-demand philosophy. I wouldn't be surprised if they monitor and deliberately try to taper off the demand for certain services.

Sounds like an evolution of Apple's policy to charge people if they have to call tech support with stupid questions that waste Apple's time.

In other words, it's a way to weed out the stupid people by at least making some money off of them and keep the Geniuses from shooting themselves in the head by having to deal with increased customer count.

Back in the day Apple offered home care where they would come to your home if you had a problem. Apparently, if the technician found that the computer wasn't working because it wasn't plugged in then they were supposed to pretend to fix something rather than embarrass the customer by showing them that it wasn't plugged in.