Best Buy says Apple iPad 2 units are being held for an 'upcoming promotion'
In response to rumors, Best Buy issued an official statement on Friday to Boy Genius Report, in which the company denied it is in any hot water with Apple. Instead, it said that stock is being held for an upcoming promotion, on which it provided no further details.
"Best Buy continues to receive iPad 2 inventory from Apple on a regular basis," the company said. "As we've said previously, we are fulfilling customer reservations first.
"Our stores have been asked to temporarily hold non-reserved iPad 2 inventory for an upcoming promotion. This is a customary practice for us when there are supply constraints. Best Buy enjoys a great partnership with Apple, and we're delighted by customer response to iPad 2."
This week, rumors began to swirl that Best Buy had caught the ire of Apple over an alleged policy to stop iPad 2 sales once the company met a certain quota for the day. One report claimed that Apple had "blacklisted" Best Buy for the purported practice.
It was also claimed that Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was personally involved in "negotiations" with Best Buy over the dispute. A separate report said that Apple had "ordered a freeze" on all Best Buy iPad 2 sales.
Best Buy has been a close partner with Apple, debuting Apple-specific boutiques in its stores with the approval of the Mac maker starting in 2008. And last year, when the first-generation iPad went on sale, Best Buy was an exclusive launch partner, while other retailers like Target and Walmart were forced to wait for the right to sell the iPad.
65 Comments
Yeah, it'll be called the "stand in line and wait" promotion
Which do you believe? I don't think Apple would dump Best Buy totally because they are a great outlet for their products. If they stopped supplying the iPads to them then Best Buy might drop Apple in retaliation. I bet people high up in companies have big egos.
So does that mean that Apple could actually stop supplying iPads to Best Buy? It doesn't matter to me since there aren't any in my city.
I think that at least half (or more) of the "rumours" or "Report: Apple is doing..." headlines are just made up by bloggers that need to write something so that people will click through to their stories. I visit enough blogs and news sites to be able to watch these rumours just run through all of them, without any of them having any facts.
Granted most of them are just "informed" guesses, but someone makes an outlandish supposition from some scrap of info and all of a sudden Best Buy is BLACKLISTED by Apple. Then that headline is so juicy that the other blogs pick it up, it's funny really, and sometimes just pathetic. But we keep reading them anyways...
Now Best Buy says that they are just holding them for a promo, and some sites try to read crazy things into that statement...
As the old tried and true saying goes: Believe none of what you read, and just half of what you see...
This doesn't make much sense to me. So Apple is making iPads as fast as they can to try to satiate incredible demand. Weeks later lines are still persisting and plenty of people still want one. So, Best Buy decides to leave them in the back room because they want to run a promotion? This is ridiculous. If this were true and I was Apple, I would be very pissed that my customers were having to wait and my reputation was suffering because of some promotion.
Which do you believe? I don't think Apple would dump Best Buy totally because they are a great outlet for their products. If they stopped supplying the iPads to them then Best Buy might drop Apple in retaliation. I bet people high up in companies have big egos.
So does that mean that Apple could actually stop supplying iPads to Best Buy? It doesn't matter to me since there aren't any in my city.
Sounds to me like this "oh we are holding them for a promotion" schtick is a negotiated face-saving plan. I don't think anyone could seriously believe they were holding such a hot item to build up stock in the middle of an international shortage. However, both have too much to lose if the relationship blows up, so Cook talked to their guy and now they will come up with some way (some promotion) of making this go away.