by,

Suzanne Coleman

[Ok, I wrote this about a week or so ago, when they reported the delays in delivery for the Apple Watch, but since I didn’t publish it, I’m doing it today.  The analysis is still relevant.  Only time will tell if this new product release method that Apple employed will work or not, though I’m thinking it certainly isn’t be the ideal way to do things.]

I’ve got to say, when you pay someone 75 some million dollars because they’re “Just so awesome” to get them to come to your company and work, you’d probably think they wouln’t completely f@%* up your business, wouldn’t you?  Well, that’s what is happening now, or so it seems.

It’s the Apple Fail, not the Apple Watch.

Telling your customers that your BIG NEW PRODUCT is going to be available on April 24th, and then failing to have product available?  Wow, that’s the kind of company that quietly disappears from the news as it goes out of business.  That is such a huge strategic FAIL I don’t know what to say.

Not only do they not have product available for sale, they are telling people who already paid for the product that they will have to wait MONTHS to get it!  WHAT?!@  Omg, Apple, I am so not happy.

And during the run-up campaign to the release for the Apple Watch, having major news outlets telling the public that the watch CANNOT BE PURCHASED in the store?  Seriously?  Who’s in charge there?  I mean, I caught the error, nobody at Apple did?  Hmm…  Obviously people who went into the stores WERE able to buy it online while in the stores.  How many didn’t even bother going because they weren’t interested in being jerked around?  Yeah, I wonder.  The kind of people who might pay $10,000 for a device, that’s the kind of people who aren’t really into being jerked around, and probably a few others as well.

And now they are saying that deliveries might not have such huge delays after all.  What to believe?  Like Taylor Swift said: “This is exhausting.”

I know they have pulled this availability manipulation before, and it didn’t destroy the company, so maybe people find it attractive and charming, kind of like playing hard to get?   But that kind of selfish, manipulative behavior generally tends to push people away…

NOTE:  I own Apple stock, and I expect the same thing from them that I do from any company that I work with/interact with:  quality customer service, ethics, reliability, responsibility, quality products, etc.

After their stock’s performance this quarter, I’m not sure I’ll still be adding this note to my posts… see Amazon, Netflix, YY, Starbucks, Qihoo, Tesla…