Updates
Later, 3:54 p.m. CT: incredible. That's all I have to say about the Air Pods. If you have an iPhone, you need a pair of Air Pods. It's that simple.
Original Post
From The Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago: Tim Cook stumbles at his specialty, shipping Apple products on time. Under CEO, the technology gian has been late delivering new devices. To the best of my knowledge, the writer did not mention Elon Musk. LOL
Of the three major new products since Mr. Cook became chief executive in 2011, both AirPods earbuds in 2016 and last year’s HomePod speaker missed Apple’s publicly projected shipping dates. The Apple Watch, promised for early 2015, arrived late that April with lengthy wait times for delivery. Apple also was delayed in supplying the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, two critical accessories for its iPad Pro.Fortune also had the story, "Apple sells out of AirPods before Christmas."
Of the products mentioned, it appears Apple fans were nonplussed, as they say. I haven't seen that word used in a long time.
I had planned to get AirPods for my wife for Christmas. I watched the availability of AirPods at our local Apple store via the net, and the store "always" had them in. On the Saturday before Christmas I rushed over to the Apple Store to buy the earbuds but they were out.
No big deal. I played with the 12.5"-iPad Pro for awhile. An incredible piece of technology, and yes, I hope to have one by the end of the year (2018, or maybe 2019, no hurry).
A couple days later the Southlake Apple store received a new shipment and I bought a pair.
Hopefully, my wife won't be reading the blog this morning. We are celebrating a "second" Christmas with our two daughters; Laura flew in from Portland late last week and will be here for a week.
The efficiency at the Apple store is amazing. One walks in, talks to a "greeter" at the door. If one is going to buy something, one is immediately sent to an Apple associate who then orders the product to be brought up from the back room. I was sent over to Floyd, standing by the large Apple displays/monitors; he confirmed what I wanted; talked to someone on his microphone, and in minutes I was paying for a pair of new AirPods, which, by the way, were the last pair available for the day.
My wife thinks her iPhone battery needs replacing, so she has an appointment later this week for a replacement. When making her appointment she was told that if she "walked in" at 9:45 a.m. on most days, she would be seen almost immediately. The store opens at 10:00 but the lines start about 9:45.
So, she did that, and yes, she was seen at the genius bar immediately. They had already run out of batteries, but they told her they will notify her and hold a battery for her when the next shipment arrives. Meanwhile, they did "diagnostics" on her iPhone and told her that the battery was fine.
She wants a new battery anyway, and she will get it replaced for $29.
Meanwhile, our older daughter had her battery replaced about two weeks ago for $79, before the big brouhaha. She has seen been told by Apple that they will reimburse her $50 for the $79 / $29 change in policy. She says she's fine. She's moved on.
By the way, back to the efficiency of the Apple Store, Normally, one or two "greeters" are at the front door. Now there are generally three "greeters" during peak traffic. Customers are quickly segregated into "buying a product" vs "needing support." Those customers "needing support" are immediately segregated into "battery replacement" vs "other."
The "battery replacement" line was the longest of the three lines. Buying a product takes less than ten minutes if one knows exactly what one wants. That was the fastest $172 ($159 + tax) I have spent in quite some time, except, of course, paying Amazon bills on-line every month.
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