MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Best Buy maybe banned from selling iPad or how Apple is expanding the "Walled Garden"

grumpy3b · 04-08-2011, 01:57 PM

Yup, seems Apple is now extending their oh so wonderful "Walled Garden" to try and manipulate how retailers decide to sell products in their own business.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383307,00.asp

The the above PCMag "article" (a charitable description of the thing at best) describes how Best Buy was basically setting a daily sales quota on the iPad 2 then once this number was reached they would tell customers the thing was sold out. I am inferring Best Buy is then telling the customer to check back tomorrow as more are due in at any time. I don't see it as wrong and is a reasonable marketing method to get people to come back to the store multiple times in hopes they might also buy something else over the course of a few visits in hopes of snagging a high demand and hard to find device. It's not as if Best Buy is not buying their required amount of Apple devices and not having the iPad 2 for a few days more is going to cause someone to drop over dead, it is just some slight of hand marketing. And I really dislike defending Best Buy for any reason and it's also a pretty slimy and rinky-dink scam. Still, it's their merchandise if they paid for it and are indeed selling the product which is going to sell out no matter how they approach the matter.

Apple should instead be asking why they, Apple, cannot deliver to meet the demand, Apple is perfect in all they undertake, correct? If Apple prepared properly there would be a slight surplus if Apple did actually care about making sure any of their customers who want an iPad 2 could buy one right here and now.

A funny case of the pot calling the kettle black it would seem.

Added: {04/11/2011}
Well, it seems after reading more of the links thanks to a few folks commenting later in the thread there are valid reasons for holding back on the sales. And it might all have been nothing more than a couple of abused Best Buy employees 'acting out'. Can't blame them because anyone knows if you keep kicking your dog one day your leg will come back missing a foot.

But all in all it was a nothing story based on employee rumor. Of course many stories have started that small and turned into something real. But perhaps not in this case. Sorry about that miss. It was fun to have some conspiracy theories, heck someone even brought in the Illuminutty. Oh wait those are the ones from Planter's Peanuts not the Freemasons. Ahhh, Illuminati was the answer. ;p

04-08-2011, 01:57 PM	#1
grumpy3b Banned Posts: 246 Karma: 14967 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle 2 (x2), Kindle 1, a couple old PDAs	Best Buy maybe banned from selling iPad or how Apple is expanding the "Walled Garden" Yup, seems Apple is now extending their oh so wonderful "Walled Garden" to try and manipulate how retailers decide to sell products in their own business. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383307,00.asp The the above PCMag "article" (a charitable description of the thing at best) describes how Best Buy was basically setting a daily sales quota on the iPad 2 then once this number was reached they would tell customers the thing was sold out. I am inferring Best Buy is then telling the customer to check back tomorrow as more are due in at any time. I don't see it as wrong and is a reasonable marketing method to get people to come back to the store multiple times in hopes they might also buy something else over the course of a few visits in hopes of snagging a high demand and hard to find device. It's not as if Best Buy is not buying their required amount of Apple devices and not having the iPad 2 for a few days more is going to cause someone to drop over dead, it is just some slight of hand marketing. And I really dislike defending Best Buy for any reason and it's also a pretty slimy and rinky-dink scam. Still, it's their merchandise if they paid for it and are indeed selling the product which is going to sell out no matter how they approach the matter. Apple should instead be asking why they, Apple, cannot deliver to meet the demand, Apple is perfect in all they undertake, correct? If Apple prepared properly there would be a slight surplus if Apple did actually care about making sure any of their customers who want an iPad 2 could buy one right here and now. A funny case of the pot calling the kettle black it would seem. Added: {04/11/2011} Well, it seems after reading more of the links thanks to a few folks commenting later in the thread there are valid reasons for holding back on the sales. And it might all have been nothing more than a couple of abused Best Buy employees 'acting out'. Can't blame them because anyone knows if you keep kicking your dog one day your leg will come back missing a foot. But all in all it was a nothing story based on employee rumor. Of course many stories have started that small and turned into something real. But perhaps not in this case. Sorry about that miss. It was fun to have some conspiracy theories, heck someone even brought in the Illuminutty. Oh wait those are the ones from Planter's Peanuts not the Freemasons. Ahhh, Illuminati was the answer. ;p Last edited by grumpy3b; 04-11-2011 at 01:04 PM.