JP234
I'm surprised they held out this long. I worked for an authorized Apple reseller, service and training facility. Apple Inc. gradually started squeezing our margins when Steve Jobs returned. As a B-level seller, we sold Macs at 10% margin. Soon after the iMac G4 was introduced, 10% shrank to 7% except on the Mac Pro and the MacBook Pro. Then the margin went to 7% on the Mac Pro. When the iPod and iPhone were introduced, our margin was 4% on those products. When teh 3.5% transaction charge for credit card transactions was subtracted, we were left with nothing, unless we could upsell accessories. Then Apple started soldering RAM on their logic boards, and using proprietary SSDs, pretty much eliminating about 75% of our service business. Then they started charging us the same amount for a fixed-price mail-in epair that they charged endusers, taking away another 15% of our service business. Taking training in-house at the Apple Stores was next. That was the end for MacSpecialist.
That's American capitalism, and I'm not complaining, just detailing what happened. I had been buying Apple stock since Jobs' return, and was able to get a good job at Apple, in purchasing (for 3rd party products in their stores). Using Apple's employee stock purchase plan, I kept up buying more and more shares. So Apple didn't cost me my job, they gave me a career, paid off our mortgage, and bought us a new BMW 325i. And we still have 1,653 dividend-paying shares.
We're all sorry to see independent, family-owned companies fail, but bottom line, Apple was way better than us (or any of the other resellers) at giving users an awesome experience from end to end.
