Apple screws UK disties, punts just 13,000 iPads to channel Apple neglected the channel when divvying up stocks of the latest iPad, but disties that laid hands on the device found the margins were slightly more generous than on previous generations. The channel bully boy confirmed it had shipped three million of the latest-version fondleslab to 12 countries in four days after the 16 …
Is El Reg suggesting that the iPad and other Apple products are not actually "Designed in California" but rather in Taiwan? Or that Foxconn are also selling iPads under their own name?
Foxconn are just, like, making things for Apple, right?
I know it's probably meant it as a throw-away joke, but there's got to be some logic to it, doesn't there?
Er, we attribute sources. See, well, everything. Foxconn-rebrander was cooked up in the London office - and then lo and behold, a week or so later Foxconn bragged that it can and will do R&D on gear it makes, leaving tech companies to just do the marketing.
See: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/23/foxconn_international_phone_division/
C.
Other Rebranders include… If El Reg doesn't apply the term to these companies, it's Trolling it's readers
Acer Inc.
Amazon
Asus
Barnes & Noble
Cisco
Dell
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
IBM
Lenovo
Logitech
Microsoft
Motorola
Netgear
Nintendo
Nokia
Panasonic
Philips
Samsung
Toshiba
Vizio
Isn't most of the stuff in the iphone designed by other companies anyway? The hi res screen, camera and memory is samsung isn't it? The processor from IBM, the camera lense schnider. There's probably 50 other companies involved too. Then Foxconn makes the parts for them and then glues it all together
Apple did the software and put it in a glass case. Its a mungrel dog of tech as it any product out there.
Agreed! Personally I can't laugh at enterprise and success, Like I can clown like failure. Thinking this joke is funny kinda relies on ignorance about how value is created. It appeals to a certain cynical mentality that is the opposite of what you need to be a risk taking entrepreneur going out in the world to make a difference and employ smart people who get things done. I would love a list of people who find it funny, so I can put them on my "do not hire" list when I get funding for my new startup.
Not surprised. It doesn't change that find it extremely irritating suggesting my customers should visit another business because we haven't been allocated enough stock, despite the demand. It makes advertising tricky, if not, impossible, as we can't guarantee stock levels or even delivery. Corporate sets up generous 10% off sales and we have half the lines available. Selling Apple shit is more trouble than it's worth.
Surely the vast majority of sales didn't come via the channels into shops, Apple preferred or otherwise.
Given the evidence doing the rounds on the day, most sales came via Apple's online shop, as people realised that buying from a shop is a huge waste of time having to stand in line.
TNT and co. went utterly ballistic on that friday, having to fulfill hundreds of parcel deliveries per driver for the iPad, and I'm informed by TNT that they couldn't fulfill them all on the first day and had to spread it over to the Saturday.
My iPad was returned to base in the TNT warehouse whilst the telephone operators told me it was still out for delivery. A subsequent phone call showed it was sat in their very offices awaiting personal collection! So in anticipation I went up to collect it - in some ways similar, if more costly in petrol, than having to stand in in line at a shop for one! :-(
I still don't know if the driver was just being downright lazy, because he returned to base with his remaining stash of iPads earlier than he was meant to return that day.
.
So, the channels mean sod all if most initial sales are transferred to customers via TNT!
...if they used DHL you wouldn't be able to find the status on the web site, and if (by error) it was delivered as expected it would be damaged. Most likely it would be returned to the depot with an 'unable to deliver' status even if you were home all day, and returned to the sender without further notification.
Quite funny really, if a little sad that The Register has to pretend not to care that Apple still snubs them. I bet Apple are really worried that you keep taking digs at them - not!
You do give Apple a lot of free publicity, and their tech gives you a LOT of visitors
Grow up and make friends so you can actually report first hand on future Apple stories, or is that too much to expect from a professional tech news outfit like yourselves?
I don't understand this non story. Why should company A be allowed to sue company B for not allowing company A to sell as many of company B's products?
Apple kit is expensive enough, it is better that they move to more direct sales. Why would I want another middleman taking a cut for importing it into this country, sitting it in a warehouse for some time before shipping it out to a reseller who will charge me more than buying it direct from Apple.
Nice, you've worked in the channel presumably? Or rather presumably not. There's quite a bit more to it than just "middlemen". Distributors make it possible for smaller tech suppliers to get their products into this country - giving us consumers more choice. That's not even really the primary function - distributors are the creditors for independant retailers, most of which couldn't operate without them. To sum that up, without disties prices would be higher, not lower as the overall effect (were they removed) would be to drastically reduce competition.
Sure, but none of that applies to Apple. Apple don't need distributors to get Apple kit into the country, and they don't need independent retailers to flog their kit. The stores that sell Apple kit (Apple stores) don't need distributors to advance them a line of credit.
So why do the distributors feel that they are getting shafted by Apple, so much so that one of them is suing to force Apple to give them more stock? That is what I don't understand. On what legal grounds can one company sue another company to force the latter company to supply stock to the former? It's nonsense.
Most people aren't going to drive to the one city in their state (or the one right across the border) that has an Apple store. They'd rather drive to the local electronics store and buy one there. The nearest Apple store from where I live (state capitol of all places) is an hour drive at a bordering state (speeding), otherwise, it's an hour and a half to the one in-state. I can drive a few miles to a local store and pick it up from a local store or shop online.
That's quite surprising to me, because literally everywhere I went that wasn't completely sold out of everything had stocks of 16GB models both with and without 4G, and nowhere - including my local Apple Store - had anything else. Perhaps by "most popular" you mean it was the model that Apple ordered the most of - in which case, they've made a huge misjudgement of demand.
Yes. A few of the shops that we went to all had the 16GB model in stock, but NOTHING at all of the 32GB or 64GB. In fact most of them admitted that they had never recieved the 32GB / 64GB. (Maybe this is why the 16GB was most popular; maybe there were hardly any of the others to go around.)
Didn't try the 4 hour round trip to the local Apple store, and by the time we got home the impulse to buy had subsided so haven't ordered one online either :)
at Apple's behaviour here - it's not like they need the cash. You'd think they'd want as many units shipped as possible to increase their hold on the apps market - this sort of thing will result in some large customers not picking them as something to standardise on.
If you want 300 delivered and inventoried with a single point of contact for proper support you aren't going to head down to Regent St with a company credit card.
Because availability of 32GB and 64GB models in the Apple stores was non-existent, but I had no problem picking one up at Dixons in Gatwick - so if channel aren't getting very many, they're clearly having trouble shifting even the few that they do get.
I guess most people prefer to shop in Apple stores than Dixons/Currys if given the choices?
I count five positive Microsoft articles and two negative Apple articles
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Dad sues Apple for pushing cash-draining 'free' games at kids
Apple screws UK disties, punts just 13,000 iPads to channel
Well unlike everyone here who seems to utterly be in fanboi flame or rant mode I might as well try to get back to the main topic where the Reg is actually very accurate. The channel is being utterly abused by Apple. Yes by supplying the channel they get around the whole closed market by only selling by what they control through there own site, shops and authorised partners. But the way they have treated the channel for years is nothing but distain.
Lack of supply, pricing so uncompetitive you can't match there own store prices unless you want to make a loss. Or if you are very lucky you can mak 50p profit on a £1500 Macbook Pro which is a complete piss take, and for many of us yet another reason to boycott Apple kit. Let alone the fact the company is a bunch of evil bastards.
I know it'll sound like fanboism, but Apple needs to learn how to deal with the channel in a similar way to MS does. Ok get licensing issues, but on a whole we can ignore that as they actually help everyone in the channel to make a profit, and lets face it that's what all of us in the channel what to be able to do to pay for yourselves and make a living. The same is pretty true also with Linux, it's far easier to make a living out of selling it than Apple kit. It might not be pretty or shiny but who gives a stuff if it will pay our wages!
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I didn't think there were so many Apple fanbois who hung out on El Reg.
To be fair, The Reg does seem to be a bit like the South Park boys. "Equal Opportunity Offenders" (of tech companies and their ilk).
If you will really take the "Foxconn Rebrander" comment seriously, you're either new here, or you may be retaining something in your anus. Either way. GTFO.
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