How an Apple Television may (potentially) be difficult to implement.

Posted by chrstphrtlbt on April 30, 2012 08:01 am 9

I used to work at an Apple Store and see repairs as being the biggest headache for Apple regarding Televisions. I see it as the next step for Apple, with most companies going for the magic 4 of Phone, Computer, Tablet and Television but the implementation might be difficult. We hope that nothing goes wrong with our products, but seeing first hand people lugging their iMacs in to the stores I can see how this may be a problem. I know that the Personal Computer and the Television are two completely different devices with wholly different uses and interactions, but I can still see this being a problem for the engineers at Apple.

Apple is different to all other retailers in the way it operates, hardware repairs are done in house and you speak to technicians face to face. Apple care tremendously about customer service, it can be inconvenient when someone brings in their broken iMac as it can be an incredible effort on behalf of the customer to get that machine to the store. If Apple were to release an Apple TV that is larger than the 27" iMac I can see it being an awkward problem for them, one on the customer side and the other on the store side; space. There simply isn't enough space for most stores to operate repairs on a Television, it's difficult enough when you have more than 3 iMacs around to repair. Think of your Best Buy and Curry's, they are all huge stores, Apple only have about 20-30 of 350+ stores that are considered large or "flagship".

Other retailers will send technicians to peoples houses, and this is a system that works for most. Apple doesn't currently operate this way, which is where they differ. They also try and make things equally fair across the board. If such a system were implemented as an AppleCare package for Televisions, imagine the 27" iMac customer who's annoyed he can't get a technician to his house because his iMac isn't as large as the television, or a disabled customer who isn't able to get to the store for a while but has problems with their product. I can see it as being a headache for Apple, one they potentially will have solved but it's just a point I wanted to put across and see what people think of it as I haven't heard this angle being discussed.