If you have ever been inside a Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart or any other store that sells Apple products you might notice something very unusual. They are ALWAYS segregated from other products. Apple has exceptionally strict rules about the displays for their products. They require a certain distance from their devices and any competing device.  They also require large logos and information in their displays to clearly indicate that this is an Apple product. In most Best Buy stores Apple products are at the front of the store and everyone else’s tablets are at the back with the PCs. The idea that someone would pick up a Samsung, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, or any other non-Apple tablet on their own by mistake is ludicrous. Even in a Wal-Mart or Target the iPads are completely separated from everything else in their own display case marked clearly with the Apple name and logo. It is beyond comprehension that Apple’s lawyers want anyone to believe that someone mistakenly picked up a competing product by mistake.

So how are people getting them and then returning them? Apple has data after all and is showing it. Well here is the simple way this happens. Back in the K6 days I can remember shopping for things at best buy and I heard multiple Best Buy employees make statements like “AMD CPUs are just Intel CPUs that didn’t make QC (Quality Control), you don’t want one of them”.  When I was in a Best Buy looking for a new Canon Vixia Camcorder I was told that Canon bought their lenses from Sony. The sales person wanted me to buy Sony. Later while I was in a different Best Buy looking at the Asus Transformer Prime a Best Buy employee told my wife that the Acer Tablet she was playing around with was “just like an iPad only less expensive”.

One the same side we would be willing to bet quite a bit of money that if some of the people that returned a competing product were deposed we would find out they were pushed toward the products they bought. Also the return reasons are most likely misstated by Apple as well. When the Netbook first hit, most of them were Linux. These Linux based models were returns because they “were not Windows” again they were often sold as “just as good as” especially when the big pushes by Best Buy started where you got a printer and a ton of other items just for getting a netbook.  Our guess is that the real reasons was something along the lines of; we originally wanted an iPad, but went with this instead because it was cheaper and it is just not an iPad. In fact we have heard that from a couple of people that did buy an Android based product due to price when they really wanted an iPad or iPhone.

We are expecting to see Apple really ramp up the spin and PR attempts. Remember they are the masters of putting on a show and no matter how you want to slice it a jury trial is a show. It is up to the Judge to insure that the information presented by both sides is accurate and not misleading in any way. We are very concerned that Judge Lucy Koh is not up to the task, but we hope  that with the eyes of the world on her she might be forced to do the right thing and keep the theatrics to a minimum and reduce Apple’s show to just the facts.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words -

In parallel with the trial Apple has embarked on a significant PR campaign with Sir Jonathan Ive making claims that Apple is not in the business of making money.  Now, we are not sure what fantasy land Ive would like us to believe in, but Apple’s actions on this one seem to rat them out. For starters Apple has one of the highest margins for phones or tablets and we all know about the margins on their laptops and desktops. If Apple was not interested in making money but getting perfect little bundles of computerized joy into the hands of everyone they would reduce their prices by about 1/3 if not more. We might also want to point out that Steve Jobs was obsessed with making and keeping money. He refused to pay certain dividends to investors because he was so concerned with money and this was even after Apple had their pile of cash that they do now. It was not until Tim Cook took office that this changed (mostly because he was concerned that investors would leave with Steve Jobs gone).  

Ive’s comments are also belied by the massive law suits filed by Apple around the globe. If these suits filed by Apple are not concerned with making money why the aggressive stance? If we take Ive’s statment as truth then Apple is guilty of attempting to block competition through legal means just to ensure they are the only manufacturer making phones (since it is not about money).  No, here the simple fact is that Apple IS in the business to make money and any competition hinders that goal.

Ive also made statements that Apple almost scrapped the iPhone on multiple occasions. Here their own Mythology is hurting them; many of you might remember the stories of how Steve Jobs drove them to complete the project and make it perfect. There are tales of long nights, last minute changes (remember the story about changing the face from plastic to glass?), and the drive to bring this product to market first. Again Apple seems to be convinced that if they say it people will believe it. Fortunately for the consumer market this is no longer true. Apple has told too many fables about the iPhone that they have forgotten them or expect the market to. Apple did not bet the company on this project either. They had a bestselling product in the iPod (which was copied from the Creative Nomad) and wanted to integrate a phone into their media player. It was as simple as that. They took the Nomad and combined it with Windows Phone/Palm OS and kicked out the iPhone, which is what they wanted. Yes the iPhone was a very polished product even for the first generation, but it was also behind the existing smartphones in many core ways.  Apple, with Steve Jobs at the helm, was able to spin this and present the device to the consumer market that was already eating up the iPod and who had become addicted to iTunes by that time already. It was (simply put) a way to extend their revenue stream into a new market and it was a safe bet based on their research.

It will be interesting to see what other stories Apple comes up with to try and paint themselves as the good guy and underdog again. We have a feeling that this tactic might not work out as well as Apple thinks considering their own PR about how great they are and how many iPads, iPods, and iPhones they have sold. Still if they did not try to spin this they would not be Apple.

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