The Apple Difference

I bought an iPhone 3G tonight, and no I'm not going to review it. You already know everything you want to know.

I did want to highlight one small detail of the purchasing experience. After waiting about an hour in a line, I was personally serviced by an Apple salesperson who handled the entire process.

There is one part of the Apple mobile phone purchase experience that stands out from the norm. Typically, once you have selected your phone, a store drone runs off, fetches the phone, opens it, and sets it up.

In an Apple store, the assistant helpfully opens the saran wrap, then hands you the box, so that you may open the box yourself, remove the plastic cover, and touch your new phone. And when the salesperson offers you the box, he does so in a voice that implies he knows you want to, and is almost as happy to see you doing it as you are to be doing it.

To some, this may seem a silly detail. But the sort of person who would wait for an hour to get a specific phone (in other words, my sort) is the sort of person who absolutely loves unboxing their new devices. We make videos of this process. So Apple made damn sure the customer opens the box, and fiddles with the device before anything else happens.

Of course, the assistant then retrieves the phone, and sets it up until it's ready for a test call. I appreciated the smooth-as-silk process, even amid the amazing ruckus of the 5th Avenue store. And I appreciated buying from a company that pauses a moment to let me enjoy my new purchase.

It would be so easy not to do this. It's inefficient, an unabashed waste of time. More people would get through faster if the drones worked as fast as they could. It would be faster, but it wouldn't be as fun, and it wouldn't be Apple.

With this small action, Apple lets me know they understand that in my mind, the phone is mine. Phone companies view phones as a tool to access their networks. Apple treats a phone as a treasured object, and respects, nay cultivates that feeling. Laugh if you must, but it's such a treat, in this world of cutting corners, to patronize a company that acts like it respects me.

An old Apple junky like me is used to it, but you can bet new customers will be left with a very strong impression.

That's money in the bank, and that's why I love Apple products.