Apple Nearly Created Retro-Future “Apple Cafes” in 1990s
11:55 pm, June 3rd, 2009, Pete Mortensen
© Landmark Entertainment Group
For anyone whose history with Apple dates to their first iPod, it can be really hard to fathom just how different a company it was before Steve Jobs came back in December 1996 and fundamentally turned it around.
I haven’t found a better example recently than these renderings of a project that Apple actually announced in November 1996: a series of cybercafes worldwide offering video conferencing, web surfing, and delicious Appley food and beverage. All from the comfort of an environment that looks like something you might envision if you start snorting ‘57 Chevys.
I repeat. Apple actually announced that they were doing this and held a press conference to unveil it, as this CNET article proves:
“The time is right,” said Satjiv Chahil, senior vice president of marketing for Apple, in a telephone interview. “Cybercafes are in. The technology finally is reaching out to ‘the rest of us.’ This will be a place to showcase our products in the real world.”
Can you imagine if this were Apple’s retail vision today? Of course not. They would be out of business if Steve hadn’t come back.
Via GUIFX
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Humor, Retail Stores | Comment on this article
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It is indeed very funny now to look at those pictures, but I would not be that radical while criticizing this part of Apple’s past retail strategy. Look at any modern Apple Store, and you will find a much more simplified and sophisticated concept, but still similar to the Apple Café. Even their design is as futuristic today, as the Apple Café’s was in the 90’s. Isn’t the modern Apple Store the same entertainment complex an Apple Café would be?
Thank you.
yegorch, on June 4th, 2009 at 12:47 am
this is, honestly, not very different from the apple stores of today:
+ they provide free internet
+ they sell appley things
+ the joints are hip
+ and no, they don’t serve food. unless by “food” you mean “noticeably hot employees”, in which case, they CERTAINLY sell food.
better architecture, same concept.
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themacdweeb, on June 4th, 2009 at 8:58 am
I love the similarity of the concept’s neon Apple logo sign with the swoosh going around it to today’s Genius Bar logo.
scottdot, on June 4th, 2009 at 9:09 am
That’s why this is so amazing — from a conceptual standpoint, these aren’t very different from the Apple Store. Look closer, and it’s gigantically different.
1. The business models aren’t alike. This would make money from charging for Internet access and food, and maybe it makes people like Apple products more. (Probably not, though. Macs in 1996 were in a rough state). Apple Stores make money by selling Apple products.
2. The design is absolutely nothing alike, and the experience wouldn’t be, either. This looks like a Hard Rock Cafe. The Apple Store is like going inside an iPod.
3. This would have been sub-licensed to Landmark to execute. Apple Stores were created entirely in-house by Apple.
I love this so much, because it shows the difference between an idea and its execution. Apple retail is a great idea, maybe the best marketing idea in the company’s history. Apple Cafes? One of the worst.
Pete Mortensen, on June 4th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I’m gunna second the first few commenters; the Apple retail stores are absolutely in the same vein as these cafes. Namely, the point of both is to have a place that people want to hang out where they can become familiar with Apple products. It’s in the freakin quote in the post.
Of course, this really shows how a good idea is never enough. The implimentation of it is absolutely critical.
Church of Apple, on June 4th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
It was actually a great concept for the time, except it wasn’t the core business of Apple. It would have changed Apple from making and selling personal computer electronics to a video arcade for grown ups. Might have been a big success, but only until notebooks and home networking matured. Probably the next AOL.
I think the Harvard Business Review lesson in this tidbit is that Jobs didn’t save Apple simply by creating better products. It’s arguable that even Sculley was selling better equipment back then. But what Jobs did was rebuild the core Apple business from the ground up: making and selling computers. Sculley was expected to leverage the Apple brand to generate sales, like he did with Pepsi. Ironically, it was Jobs who used the core strengths he rebuilt to do exactly that.
joebob, on June 4th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Ha ha! That mock up reminds me of our Apple “fast tunes joint” comic…
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/301_999/786.html
Snaggy, on June 6th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Of *course* Apple, Inc. would not exist if it weren’t for His comeback ….
He should never’ve left.
CaryMG, on June 8th, 2009 at 11:30 am