Apple Dumped Us, Says iKlear, We Don’t Know Why [CES 2011]

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meredith_younghein_iklear1.jpg
iKlear's Meredith Younghein with her company's product and a competitor's. After nearly nine years in Apple's stores, iKlear was suddenly dropped without explanation.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — A lot of people complain about Apple’s stonewalling, but be thankful you’re not iKlear.

The popular screen cleaning company was horrified when Apple retail suddenly dropped its products from the stores — without a word of explanation.

“We’d been with them for more than eight-and-a-half years,” said Monica Younghein, spokeswoman for the family run business.

The company’s business halved overnight. It’s at CES trying to build business back up.

What made the blow especially painful, is that 11 months earlier Apple had chosen iKlear as the exclusive worldwide supplier of cleaning products in Apple stores. Apple retail is now selling similar cleaning products from a competitor. The competing products are inferior, said Younghein.

“It’s a disservice to Apple users to sell products that don’t work well,” she said. “And we don’t know why they did it.”

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