Meh, the stores aren't the problem, they're fine as far as I can tell. The problem is that you can't build a hip, happening, retail establishment without hip, happening products.
I think the author's criticisms are off base. It doesn't really matter if the store is hosted below the High Line or in a slick loft in Chelsea, or in Bryant Park as it is currently, because the Cool Factor would be borrowed. People are extremely good at spotting inauthenticity, trying to borrow that Cool Factor is just going to look lame and desperate (see: Microsoft store in Times Square).
Most Apple Stores are in extremely normal, even boring, places. Their attractiveness to shoppers isn't borrowed from their location, it's inherent in the products stocked within.
In other words, before you can have that slick, zen-like, all-glass Apple Store, you first need to invent the iPod. The headline-grabbing, head-turning products need to come first, before you build a store to house it in. As much as I like the Nexus products, they're not it.
>People are extremely good at spotting inauthenticity, trying to borrow that Cool Factor
What's so cool about some mass produced disposable widget that gets sold to grandmas at Walmart? This isn't the Apple of 2002. Cool is about exclusivity and membership into something grandma can't be a member of. Marketing telling you something is cool is actually uncool.
>As much as I like the Nexus products, they're not it.
I'm glad it lacks the pretensions you describe. Its a phone, not a religion.
You're saying the iPod in 2002 wasn't a mass produced disposable widget? The iPod was never about exclusivity or membership, it was always "for everyone."
In fact I think the primary factor for its enduring success (and that of the new Apple era as a whole) is that they managed to be "cool" and popular at the same time. They had the marketing that told you it was cool (dancing silhouettes, etc), and everyone from hip indie kids to grandmas said "yeah, that is cool."
I think the author's criticisms are off base. It doesn't really matter if the store is hosted below the High Line or in a slick loft in Chelsea, or in Bryant Park as it is currently, because the Cool Factor would be borrowed. People are extremely good at spotting inauthenticity, trying to borrow that Cool Factor is just going to look lame and desperate (see: Microsoft store in Times Square).
Most Apple Stores are in extremely normal, even boring, places. Their attractiveness to shoppers isn't borrowed from their location, it's inherent in the products stocked within.
In other words, before you can have that slick, zen-like, all-glass Apple Store, you first need to invent the iPod. The headline-grabbing, head-turning products need to come first, before you build a store to house it in. As much as I like the Nexus products, they're not it.