Just out of curiosity what in store consumer experience are you comparing your Apple store experience to? Oranges to oranges what other store/manufacturer that sells personal electronics offers good customer service?

Customer service is dead in general and Apple has made it a point to base their business on a model that brings customer service to center stage with great success. More business should follow the template.

I own an iPhone 4 and iPad 2.... Both great and no issues so far.

But I've replaced two screens and one home button assembly on three different iPhones. (family)
They are well made but the the home button ribbon cable is very delicate and doesn't secure into the control board well enough IMO.
The glass on the screens is a bit thin but if you have a good cover then it's not a problem.

".....however they heavily rely on repeat business..."

is in direct conflict with

"...products that don't last very long.........by making their old products obsolete,...."

You don't build brand loyalty (repeat Business) by making a bad product.

As far as obsolescence I have no idea where you are going with that. Every time Apple has made a major hardware change they have gone to great lengths to ensure compatibility of both old and new platforms for several years. We had the x86 to PPC switch then PPC to Intel. Intel switch was announced in 05' and OS support for PPC continued for 6 years.

Jackson, nobody is making a phone that lasts 5 years anymore. The cell technology is simply changing too fast.

However my old iPhone is 3yrs old+ and still would work fine. I still use it daily as a small wifi tab...

Maybe it is a NY thing.

stomachmonkey we will just have to agree to disagree on this point. In my view, the whole point of a physical retail store is instant gratification. This IS NYC...if I can't walk into a store and walk out with whatever I want, RIGHT NOW, I consider it a failure of capitalism.

With few exceptions, its possible to have instant gratification in this city for just about anything you could ever want. I can walk two blocks from my office and buy a PC in parts to assemble at home...chassis, power supply, NIC card, motherboard, videocard, hardrive, etc. I understand notebook components are not standardized, so its a bit different. However, I KNOW that the Apple store genius bar has replacement superdrives in stock that they could sell me. I can change a CD drive, it ain't rocket surgery. I don't buy the "don't let them tarnish your brand because of their own stupidity" BS. Car dealers offer all manner of replacement parts for vehicles they sell without tarnishing their brand. If John Q Public screws up the installation of said parts and has to come in tail-between-legs for service help, its more billable labor hours for the genius bar.

so, in summary, I like the products, I don't like the genius bar, I don't like the fact that they won't sell you parts (especially something like the superdrive which is an easy DIY swap, and is not an uncommon failure).

Verizon? Best Buy?

I rarely buy electronics. I have a DROID that I purchased about 2-3 years ago.

I don't like salespeople. I fail to see how they add any value. But I guess most people are rubes who basically WANT to be talked into buying something.

A smartphone after 5 years would be a shiny paperweight. Obsolete wouldn't even begin to describe it.

I know all about the NY thing. I'm from NY, I only moved to TX a few years ago.

The reality is their are innumerable manufacturers that won't sell parts to the general public.

And to be fair when Apple stopped the practice it pissed me off as well for the same reasons you state.

But it is by no means a failure of capitalism, in fact it is one of the tenants of capitalism, a corporation is required to pursue profit.

Apple are not a peripheral manufacturer, they are not in the business of producing and selling parts so your analogy of buying a PC in parts does not apply.

While we may have personal reasons to not like their approach to certain things it's hard to argue that they are wrong. Apple has been wildly successful in retail doing it their way while everyone else failed miserably doing it the other way.

I'd rather suffer some inconvenience and have them survive and thrive than to have my way and they wither on the vine.

My iPad 2 suddenly died last weekend so I went to the Genius Bar on Monday night. I had to wait a few minutes after my appointment time, which was unusual but it wasn't a long delay. They replaced it with no questions asked and very quickly. With the iCloud wireless restore process I was back operational within minutes. I hate it when stuff breaks, but when it is a rare occurrence and is handled like this when it does occur, it's hard to gripe much.

Typing this on my new 13" Air which is awesome. My first experience with SSD storage (other than flash on mobile devices.)

Too late to buy stock ? I thought that when it reached $80 or so a few years back. Dollar cost average may be the best way, but I'm certainly no money expert.

Ouch, that's gotta hurt.

Apple's iPhone Business Alone Is Now Bigger Than All Of Microsoft

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