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Comment by mgkimsal | Hacker News Reader

I'd loved to have played with some of them at my local store, but as is the case with almost most consumer PC stuff, the units are not on.

The Apple display section at our local Best Buys are always loaded with functioning units that are open for people to explore - not locked down with crappy "BUY GEEK SQUAD SERVICE!" screen savers.

The table with all the tablets at multiple Best Buy stores I've been in to recently are all filled with multiple tablets that are just sitting there with black screens. Not plugged in, not running on batteries, not in demo mode. Just... sitting there.

If Best Buy sold TVs like they sell tablets, they'd have 3 LG units running full color shows in HD with surround sound, and 85 empty screens just hanging on the wall, then they'd be sending all the TVs back to Vizio, Mitsubishi, Sony, etc, complaining that they're not selling.

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Everything you said is dead on, and makes me cringe when I think about the past. In the 90's and early 00's, the same would have been true of the Macintosh computers at the big box stores. Perhaps HP needs to put the same effort they put in promoting their PC line into their WebOS line. Microsoft's marketing and placement dollars are not available for their current endeavors.

Agreed. It's the same thing with the way they sell laptops or phones. Why leave dumb units lying around? Why would anyone ever buy a device that they haven't tried? Best Buy (as well as other stores) need to have well-functioning devices turned on and available for customers to try.

Additionally, they need their employees to go around and reset the devices to ensure a proper functioning system instead of the ones bogged down by apps/content downloaded by random kids onto the device.

Even going to Best Buy to try a unit does next to nothing. Pretty much everything that they sell has a flat battery, is stuck on a screen or suffering some other issue.

Except of course for the Apple display. All working. All looking good. All the time.

I'm going to guess that Apple's contract with Best Buy probably has specific requirements on how their products are displayed in every store.

Probably.

But if that's the case, why does no other company seem to use this approach?

You gotta pay to play.

Retailers always demand a fee from the manufacturer before they provide special displays like the Apple section at BB. The contract likely specifies that BB employees will keep Apple's products charged up and functional at all times. This is only possible because Apple's products command high margins that can easily cover the marketing fees.

Apple's tablet competitors obviously don't have that level of relationship. I've yet to see so much as an end cap for an Android tablet.

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