As Apple fans, we jumped at the chance to visit the Apple Store that opened in Täby Centrum on September 15. We couldn’t be there on the opening day, but on September 21, we made it to the mainland.
Three days before the opening of the Apple Store – which is the first Apple Store in Sweden – it was an Apple Event when they launched the iPhone 5, and the day before we took the ferry to Nynäshamn, the updates for both iOS and OS were available. One of the new features in iOS 6 is that the original app with Google Maps has been replaced by Apple Maps, which, of course, hasn’t had as much time as Google Maps to gather all the necessary information. That’s why people started complaining: they found faults at once. In Sweden, it seems like Gothenburg and Vara didn’t appear on the map, but I think they were added immediately; when I checked, both towns were on the map. A lot of people thought you couldn’t trust Apple Maps, so, of course, we had to test it!
We set off from Sorunda, south of Stockholm, early Friday, bound for Täby Centrum. We had a shared GPS in the car, but it broke on this day, so I switched to Apple Maps right away. After a couple of minutes, Roine stopped the car to start his TomTom app, which uses GPS and is also part of Apple Maps. We used both apps in parallel, though I shut down the sound on mine.
We found that both apps found a way; no difference. I thought that the instructions might be a little bit easier to understand on Apple Maps, but there were really no practical differences, except for one thing: in TomTom, you can choose to avoid road tolls. You can’t do that in Apple Maps. So far. I assume that this feature will come.
When we reached Täby Centrum, we stopped at a café, like a mental preparation. Then we went to the Apple Store and wow: we were there!
Apple is not a company that produces and sells only computers and other electronic devices, and the Apple Store is not merely a store that sells stuff. Everything about Apple is well thought out and cohesive. It’s a philosophy: a wish to make a difference, to create wholeness through design and function, to simplify, to create a fantastic user experience, to encourage creativity and support productivity, and to find a way to charge that benefits both customers and content developers. Their idea is not to sell at low prices. Instead, they set their prices high enough to deliver quality, including support and service. Which, in the long run, is good for the customer as well.
Apple Store is part of what we pay for. Access to the fantastic staff, Apple Geniuses, who treat customers with personal engagement and offer in-store courses. To me, it was happiness to enter this learning environment. Even if I might not use this opportunity myself, it’s a good feeling to know that others can participate in those courses. We saw a group of older people sitting around a table learning how to use iPhones with their laptops.
Afterwards, I said to Roine: ”Imagine how often we come to places where we think that they don’t use the available technology as well as they should. I think the Apple Store is the first place I have been where I haven’t felt the urge to change how I use technology.”
For example, staff carried an iPhone equipped with special software so they could register a customer or process a payment anywhere in the store. As a result, they had no people standing in line.
We bought just a few small things, like EarPods and funny iPhone shells. We left with even more positive feelings about Apple as a company than we had before.
