Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Demand?

On July 30th Apple launched the iPhone 4 in Canada at its retail stores, its carrier partner stores and some third party retailers such as Best Buy, Wireless Wave, etc. Obviously they knew there was going to be pent up demand for the product despite the perceived (or actual) antenna issues. Sure enough, there were long lineups on the 30th at any location that was selling the new phone.

It’s now 10 days later and not only are 99% of retail outlets out of stock with no idea when new inventory is coming in, but for the stores that do have the phone (seemingly limited entirely to Apple stores), there is still a line up that is many hours long. In fact, there are people lining up on the hope that stores will be receiving courier shipments later in the day.

As a tech fan, Apple fan, someone who is looking to get an iPhone 4 and a marketer, I’m wondering just how much is too much demand before it starts to backfire. Demand is great. Photos of long lines are a boon for the Apple PR people. But how long can that demand last before people (me) start getting frustrated with not being able to make the purchase they would like to make. Maybe given the demand from the US and other markets, Apple Canada should have made the decision to delay the launch until more product was in stock and demand could be met. For a company that prides itself on customer experience, has Apple crossed the fine line between creating hype and disappointing its customers?

Demand: How Much is Too Much?

Get With the Times, Retail

I am completely drawn to Swipe bookstore on Richmond Street in Toronto. They sell books on design, architecture, marketing and other creative disciplines. It has a magnetic hold over me, yet the magnet seems to not disable my credit card for some reason.

I was there yesterday with Tom Crawford. He has a device called an “iPhone” made by a company called “Apple.” Tom spied a book that looked interesting to him, took out his iPhone and started to take a picture of it. Before he could release the shutter, one of the store employees practically leaped out from behind the counter and briskly came over to Tom and asked “is there something I can help you with?”, which was clearly a euphemism for “put away your damn phone and stop taking pictures.” Her explanation was that no retail stores would permit someone to take pictures within a retail environment, presumably for competitive reasons.

That’s Retail 1.0. Get with the times, Retail.

Here is what Tom was doing: Tom was using his iPhone and an application called SnapTell to photograph the book cover and use that information to search the internet for reviews of the book. It was a fairly specialized book on infographics and diagrams so there is a good chance that he might recognize one of the reviewers and be able to make a more informed decision as to whether or not to get the book. Granted, Tom’s query also returned price comparisons from many other retailers and Swipe wasn’t the cheapest. Tom didn’t get the book.

The point is that with cool image recognition technology like SnapTell (and the equivalent for audio, Shazam), combined with ubiquitous computing and internet (see the TED talk by Pranav Mistry), shoppers will be armed with a lot more information with which to make decisions. Shoppers’ social networks will be constantly over their shoulder in the store offering advice and retailers better be prepared to be a valuable part of the real time conversation.