(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| New iMac Model Sells Well in Japan, But Retailers Complain
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January 29, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Sales are brisk of Apple Japan Inc.'s new
iMac model, released on Jan. 24, but Japanese retailers are complaining
about Apple's instructions to display the products.
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Apple Japan announced the starting date of the iMac sales only two days
earlier, on Jan. 22. Despite the short notice, many enthusiastic buyers
rushed to retail shops to purchase an iMac in their favorite color.
Some retailers said iMacs in certain colors sold so well that their
stock ran out as early as Jan. 26.
According to retailers, Apple Japan gave a number of instructions pertaining
to the display of the iMac model in five colors.
One of them was that retailers must display the five different colors
of iMacs in a set, and that they must use real computers, not mock-ups.
Apple also said that when the five machines are placed in a line, the
left-most one should be the blueberry-colored model, and the order of
the remaining four should be grape, tangerine, lime and strawberry.
Apple Japan said it is possible to place them in a circle, but added
that the order of the color variation should be the same.
The vendor gave these instructions to retailers only a few days ahead
of the start of the sale.
A retailer complained that in a few days, a space big enough to place
the five iMac models was extremely difficult to find.
Another retailer said he has never heard of a case in which a PC vendor
gave instructions on the display of its products to retailers.
A Tokyo retail shop visited by a Nikkei MAC reporter had the five iMacs
squeezed in an extremely small space to display them, and customers
had difficulty using the mouse.
Apple Japan has been allowing only a limited number of retailers to sell
iMacs. When the company put up the new iMac model on the market, it
did not increase the number of the retailers.
Related stories:
New iMac Version to Sell for 158,000 Yen in
Late January
Apple Computer's Original iMac PC to be Sold
Out
Prices of Older PC Models Declining, Nikkei
PC Survey Says
(Nikkei
MAC)
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