Have you ever noticed that the MacBooks are positioned at a slightly awkward angle whenever you visit an Apple Store?
As it turns out, there’s method to Apple’s madness — and it’s all about getting customers to adjust the screens, thereby giving them a taste of just how gorgeously tactile the company’s MacBooks really are.
But things don’t stay the same for long in Cupertino. According to Business Insider, a recent instruction to Apple Store employees mandates that instead of being angled at 70 degrees as they have been previously, now MacBooks must be positioned at exactly 76 degrees.
Apple Store employees measure these angles using the Simply Angle app on their iPhones. Interestingly enough, the app recently disappeared from the App Store — presumably forcing Apple Store competitors to resort to good old-fashioned plastic protractors if they want to borrow Apple’s cunning strategy.
As to where the 76 degree angle comes from, sadly there’s no explanation.
From speaking with many Apple employees over the years, however, I do know that Apple was one of the first tech companies to rely on the cutting-edge findings of retail psychologists to give it the edge, however subliminally, when it comes to winning customers.
No doubt the exact origin of 76 degree MacBooks will one day pop up as an anecdote in Tim Cook or Angela Ahrendts’ memoirs.
For your interest, here’s a comparison of the two distinct MacBook angles. Which one would get you to part with your cash?
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
12 responses to “Why MacBook screens must be angled at 76 degrees in Apple Stores”
Wow, the psychology in this is quite clever and yet scary.
The angle of the LCD is not a major factor in my choice :)
LED most likely… But the angle (adjustable btw) itself is not the reason you buy, the angle merely forces you to touch the Macbook.
My MBP hardly get touched. The Alienware is my work horse.
That’s a word joke I hope? Or are you totally clueless?
I just don’t use the Mac that much. It sit on my desk for 7 months until my sister asked to use it for school. It is great for her. I need the power of my Alien ware.
Those are 110 and 104 degrees, you fuktards! Are you really that dumb? 70 degrees angle is when the screen is targeted to the keyboard.
Haha yeah I noticed that too
You seem like a nice person.
Edmond, calling someone a fucktard when you clearly haven’t looked at a protractor recently you just look an ass. You can read a protractor both ways. So they are correct at 70 and you are correct at 110.
Are you a fucktard?
Lol nah m8, that’s not how protractors work. The 70 degrees on the other side would be if the laptop was facing the opposite way. The angle the computer is shown in the picture is bigger than a 90 degree angle.
Smh, what the actualy fuck has America’s educational system come to
This sounds like a bean counter gone wild.