Five year ago, some people thought Steve Jobs was crazy to open Apple-branded retail stores. I’m sure those people are ‘thinking different’ today. As usual, Apple’s managed to create a media frenzy over its snazzy new store in New York, and looking at the photos, it’s easy to get caught up in it even from here.
I figured the stores would work out well. The existing Apple resellers (especially in the US) were not doing the best job of reaching non-Mac users. If you found Macs at all, they were being ‘explained’ by the same 18 year old kid who was selling car stereos and washing machines two aisles over. Who better than Apple to tell the Apple story to the uninitiated? Besides, if Windows users had a chance to actually see and touch a Mac, they are much more likely to ultimately buy one.
The Minnesota Connection
But there was another reason I knew the stores would succeed…the guy who Steve chose to run them: Ron Johnson. Ron came from Target, where he helped them achieve their incredible success. It was obvious to me that Apple was serious about the stores if they they put someone like this in charge. (more…)
I was reviewing some video of the crowd coming into the auditorium for the Tokyo Macworld keynote in 2001, when I found a short clip of Steve Jobs hanging out before the show. I had forgotten all about it. 
Still totally jet-lagged, but I felt awake enough to share a few images from the trip.