Take it from a traveler who ’s always forget to mob some sort of electronic appurtenance — Apple should elaborate its retail efforts into airports .
I am in the thick of what my iCal travel calendar lists as The Never - Ending East Coast Road Trip , a 12 - sidereal day mix of business and pleasure that is taking me to Baltimore , Northern Virginia , back to Baltimore , on to Boston , and finally to Knoxville , Tennessee , before I return to my ancestral homeland in California . As befits a trip that will keep me away from hearth and home for nigh two week , I am traveling with a rucksack full of electronica — a steel - novel MacBook Pro , its accompanying MagSafe world power adapter , a cellphone headphone and battery charger , an iPod mini and its courser , a Canon PowerShot S200 digital camera anditscharger , and enough DVDs to keep me amused on assorted planing machine and train rides up and down the Eastern Seaboard . As also befits a trip that I am admit , I have left behind a modestly important piece of equipment that it grow out I ’m lead to need after all — the cable that connects the aforementioned camera to the also aforementioned MacBook Pro .
Could have been bad — I’ve been known to block to pack slenderly more essential token like toothpaste and pants . So at least my fellow passengers are n’t suffering .
The camera cable television is modestly important because of the pleasure aspect of this business - and - pleasure road trip . I ’ve already crammed the PowerShot ’s memory card with figure of aBaltimore Orioles secret plan , the Baltimore skyline , a wedding I go to this weekend , and various and sundry long - lost relatives . And while the television camera will get a bit of a breather this hebdomad while I see a spate of merging in and around Boston , it calculate to get pressed back into serve this weekend when I head out to theCal - Tennessee football gamein Knoxville . So the dilemma I ’m confront is this : I ’m rapidly running out of room on my memory card , and I have miles to go before I contain taking pictures .
There ’s an easy enough solution for this problem of my own making — just buy another thickset flash card ( which I postulate anyhow ) or a card reader . I ’m sure that my favorable neighborhood Apple Store — or at least the Apple Store near whatever well-disposed neighborhood I happen to bump myself in today — probably has such cards in blood line . The worry is , my daytime hours are pretty much speak for during the next five days , make a sidetrip to an Apple Store a visit I am unbelievable to make .
Where Iamlikely to be spending a portion of sentence in the next week , however , is at the airport . On Friday , when I ’m atLogan Airportor when I ’m cooling my heels atHartsfieldin between flight , it ’d be with child if there were an Apple Store force between the book sellers , Cinnabon outlet , and other drome - based retailers where I could bribe what I needed .
So why is n’t there one ?
Surely I ’m not the first traveler who ’s ever left an accouterment or cable or other indispensable piece of equipment back at the ranch . And surely , more than one Mac - using route warrior , facing the medical prognosis of a grumpy - country flight , has wished for a place where they could pick up an excess battery or download some electronic euphony . And , judging by the MacBooks , PowerBooks , iBooks , and iPods I ’ve spotted on this trip , it seems like people are summate their electronic gadget with them on their journeys . I ’m no retail expert , but that seems like an untapped market to me .
So many Boston - region Apple stores … so little clip .
Apple has done an splendid job expanding the reach of its brick - and - mortar store since the first one opened up inGlendale , Calif. , andTysons Corner , Va. , in 2002 . In picky , the company has enjoyed some measure of winner opening up a serial of stores in and around major population centers — I depend some half - a - dozen store in the Boston area alone . What ithasn’tdone is introduce summary outposts in airports that attend to those major urban center . But it could do that very easily , in a manner that fits with the caller ’s approach to retail .
The Apple Stores add up in a variety of shapes and sizes . On one end of the spectrum are the flagship store — the multi - story mercantile establishment like the one onMarket Street in San Franciscoor inNew York ’s SoHo district . The company also put up mid - size store that bask prominent emplacement in high - profile malls and shopping areas — the Apple Store inSanta Monica ’s Third Street Promenadecomes to listen . And last , Apple run small depot in smaller malls . It seems like a slimmed - down retail post — one that does n’t betray Mac desktops and laptop computer inevitably , but instead focuses on accessories , iPods , and some software — would fill in the other ending of the spectrum . Throw in services like a cubicle for downloading tunes from the iTunes Music Store or charging station for power - depleted laptop computer , and you ’ve convey an aerodrome - based store where most Mac users on the go would be happy to drop time ( and dollars ) .
( We are , of course , ignoring the 800 - hammering elephant in the room , which is Apple ’s phenomenally successful iPod and the twelve upon dozens of add-on that are available for the music player . Apple could probably carry an airport entrepot with nothing more than headphone , battery booster unit , and otheradd - ons that would enrapture iPod - toting travelers — a fairly large group by this detail , I ’m guessing , and make the proverbial killing . )
So there ’s sure as shooting a place for such a memory board in a major airport , and Apple clearly has the resource to spread out such a place . Will it ? I have no idea . But if the company does , I ’ll be first in line of reasoning to buy that memory card .
