It can be easy to forget how bleak things honestly were for Apple during the years in between the Newton launch and the release of the iMac, in part because things are so damn good these days. Best Buy just announced how excited it was to have the exclusive rights for two weeks to sell the AppleTV. Which would be great, if Apple weren't excluding their own stores from this deal. Oh, and if Apple were providing more than 3,000 TOTAL AppleTVs to Best Buy's 822 stores.
For more on why this really marks a milestone, click through.
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Consider this: Ten years ago, Apple pulled its computers out of virtually every brick-and-mortar store in the country other than CompUSA. Best Buy earned particular derision from Mac fans back then. I remember well seeing a single Performa that crashed in 1995 on display as the only Apple machine in the whole store. It's a good thing that Apple stormed out -- controlling their public image at stores did a lot to change negative perceptions. For a lot of people, those are the only Macs they ever see. That was a negative image to promote. The iMac and then the iPod re-opened those doors, and Apple returned on its terms.
And now, Best Buy is over the moon with joy to have two weeks of partial exclusivity to sell the AppleTV. Think about that -- they bent over backwards to Apple for the right to be the only place you can buy a new Apple product, well, except for the Apple Store online and all of Apple's physical retail stores. And then, only for two weeks.
But Apple is now just about the most powerful force in consumer electronics. People are doing things for them that would be unheard of for any other brand. It's pretty amazing.
Best Buy finagles Apple TV exclusive | News.blog | CNET News.com:
