Where does the Internet End?
I elaborated on an old post for the company blog:
Neither Virgin nor CompUSA’s markets disappeared. Rather, they just shifted into the blurry edge of the net. Their continued existence (and vitality) can be seen across the street from Virgin, at the Apple Store. Here, the Macs once sold at CompUSA are gateways to iTunes, which sells every bit of content Virgin once housed.
…
Apple understands how to balance on the edge of the Internet. The store is dedicated to tactile and personal interactions with high-ticket items that generally aren’t purchased by consumers online: MacBooks, iPhones, iPods, etc. Everything else Apple sells is sold online through the high-ticket items catered to in-store. It’s a perfectly balanced ecosystem. Each channel drives the other..
All of this is immensely successful: according to Bloomberg, Apple increased revenue at its stores by 2.5 percent in the first six months of this year, to a grand total of $3 billion. Sales for the rest of the retail industry, however, fell 9.2%. Digitally, Apple can’t be touched: NPD estimates iTunes accounts for 25% of all the music sold in the US and 69% of all digital music total.
*Gratuitous Self Link Thursday (GSLT)
