Apple Store down - new cultware coming?
Apple has taken the Apple Store down for maintenance, which is generally an indication that new products are on the way. The site has been down since at least 7am Pacific time Tuesday and remains down at 9:10am: During its fourth quarter earnings call yesterday, Apple said would be hit with higher freight costs than usual …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Why?
Why do they have to bring the site down to add new products? That's pretty lame design!
Why?
Because it's good marketing, that's why.
Otherwise, would we have heard of it as soon and as much?
If there's one thing everyone must agree the Fruit sure knows how to do well, that is marketing.
Or not.
Works here
As of 1:05pm EST, no problems accessing the iTunes store or downloading the free music that Starbucks gives away :-)
it's back
New iMacs, new MacBook, new mouse, new keyboard, new Mac minis, probably other new stuff.
Why?
So articles like this get written and people visit the site :)
@Neil Mitchell
I suspect it's more about building hype than design ...
it's obvious
why they do it.
partly as an homage yo the "under construction" signs that used to adorn the net and, most importantly, it garners hype/attention.
Would there be any anticipation for a simple price change or extra product roll out if they simply performed a batch update to some records?
no, far better to drop the whole site and get a similar boost to sales as a bank holiday sale when it does come back,
Some sexy kit there now
Loving the new mouse especially. It's the simpler things that make the difference...
Re: Why?
I can think of some reasons: Perhaps they need to synchronize the deployment of the new product data across many data centers, in many different countries; or maybe the new product set comes as a file and is imported into a centralize database, which may take a few hours to update; or maybe they need to flush all product cache and this takes some time.
When you have massively distributed systems, data propagation and caching can take time. Taking the system down during may affect customer access, but can ultimately prove beneficial by decreasing customer-facing integrity issues, such as obsolete prices or product descriptions.
Perhaps Apple is conscious of this and wants to avoid such issues. The alternative is to do like, say, Amazon and Google, and perform live updates, which increases the chance of integrity issues and customer problems. These happen more often than many would like to admit--as we have seen here in El Reg many times before.
-dZ.
New iMac
http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/ it's back up, with new iMac, Mac Mini and a free copy of the latest Star Trek film judging by the picture.. (removes tongue from cheek)
Hype
There is no technical reason, it's purely to get stories like this posted and therefore getting advertising for free.
@Neill
Its so that tech sites will run 'apple store down - something shiny this was comes...' stories.
@Neill Mitchell
... or brilliant marketing.
I imagine they want to launch their entire new product range at a given date and time, and don't want to be taking orders for the old kit at the old prices in the meantime.
Plus: taking the Apple store down for a few hours will create an instant press buzz.
Worked rather well, it seems. Brought Twitter to its knees as well.
Store Open
The store is back up,
New mini, macbook and iMacs with even bigger screens.
@Neill Mitchell
Agreed, if you consider only the technical part.
But if you get websites like El Reg to notice this, and publish it on their sites: Free publicity!
Apple being Apple, publicity must be considered at all times.
R
..and another thing...
Mac Mini with two HDs and Snow Leopard Server?
That is SHINY. Gawd daym.
Ok, well played again, fruitsters..
Shiny shiny! New svelte iMac, beefed up minis, and a rather neat mouse- now that I am tempted by. Time in seconds before someone gets the new mouse fully supported in a Linux desktop environment? Not long, I'll be bound.
It's hilarious how low-key and slick their marketing is- the noise level as all the flamewars break out do their work for them.
Meantime, if anyone has a spare "Magic Mouse" for me to hack on...
This topic is closed for new posts.
