There are 265 Apple stores in the U.S. (none near me, of course), and that means lot of employees with stories to tell. Some of the things that go on in Apple stores might reinforce your belief that Apple is a cult, if that’s what you think, but the loyalty-building customs are not much different from other companies. And the way they look at customers will not surprise you. But this fact stood out to me:
6. THEY LOVE SEEING VINTAGE DEVICES.
It’s not all about the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch. Most employees have seen their fair share of super old Apple gear. “I had one lady who brought in an Apple IIe,” Eric says. “I used that in middle school.” Products that have not been manufactured for more than five are labeled “vintage” and anything that was discontinued more than seven years ago is “obsolete.” Apple Store employees can’t order parts for these gadgets, but they don’t mind giving them a once-over. “It’s amazing what people will keep,” Eric says. “It goes to show the support and the viability of the products Apple produces that you can see things that are 10 to 12 years old [and] people are still using them.”
I drive a 26-year-old car and live in a 109-year-old house. The idea that something just a few years old is “vintage” and you can’t get parts for it is beyond my understanding. I still have trouble believing that my 2009 Mac Mini will no longer support the applications my kids use for school. Sigh. But there’s a lot more about Apple stores and their employees you’ll want to read at mental_floss.
This means that virtually every unit I use will eventually still be in use when it is considered vintage or obsolete. I have a six year policy with buying new computers (I do upgrade hardware in a computer occasionally though). And I rotate two computers, one laptop, one desktop. So we buy a computer every three years but the one we are replacing is always at least six years old.
I've been able to do this because as a mac user since 1988 and their reticence to have open third party development, over those 27 years I've only had to take a computer in for repair twice. And I've only ever had a unit replaced (and it was actually the monitor that came with my Quadra) once.
I still have a sunflower imac that is completely functional and serves as an internet hub, guest computer and photo storage.
Yes, big mac fan here. I will however, end on a rather sticky note. I haven't hated a Mac OS as much as I do Yosemite since Mac OS 6.