Apple Store – time we had one in New Zealand

IDC Research reports Apple overtook Acer and Dell in a single quarter to become the second best-selling PC brand in Australian and New Zealand. Hewlett-Packard remains top.

Jumping a single place would have been an achievement, climbing two spots is outstanding.

Apple’s rise comes at a time the overall PC market is weak. Ironically, the main reason PC sales are soft because devices like Apple’s iPad and iPhone are eating into their sales.

IDC says one reason for Apple’s success is its retail store expansion. There are Apple stores everywhere around the world.

New Zealand Apple Store missing

Well, almost everywhere. We don’t have a single Apple store in New Zealand while Australia has 17.

Australia has about one Apple Store for every 750,000 people. By that reckoning, New Zealand should have at least five Apple stores. It would be enough for two stores, maybe three, in Auckland.

OK, so Australians are richer than New Zealanders. Even so, there should at least be one in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

A gentleman’s agreement?

I understand there was, or may still be, a gentleman’s agreement between Renaissance, the erstwhile exclusive New Zealand Apple distributor and Apple saying the company will not open an own-brand store here until some future date.

That day can’t come too soon. I know of friends who fly to Sydney expressly to visit an Apple store. I see this as a measure of the unsatisfactory New Zealand Apple retail experience.

There have been Apple products in my house since a few weeks after the first 128K Macintosh went on sale. We bought two Apple products this year, two last year and have plans to buy at least two more next year.

Apple makes outstanding equipment. Now I’m ready for some outstanding retail customer service. Let’s hope we get a store soon.