The main flagship Apple store at the ICONSIAM in Bangkok.
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When I get back to my desk I will add image captions and some thoughts....!
Notes from a visit to the ICONSIAM Apple Store.
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Seemed to be at least 150 people in the store on a Saturday night, perhaps as many as 200, when I visited. Walking around ICONSIAM, there was no other store with nearly as many people inside.
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There was an Apple employee sitting with two young children teaching them about computer technology.
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Everyone in the store was having a great time, enjoying themselves very much. Peoples faces were full of smiles and the energy was quite high.
Thoughts
Recently we have had some people make some disparaging remarks about Apple here. One person called Apple "confused", but clearly there is only one computing company with a laser-like focus on consumers and consumer education and that company is Apple. There are no IBM, HP or any other unix-like stores in ICONSIAM, Bangkok, Thailand. There was no Microsoft store. There was no Google store. So, at least in my mind, there is no confusion about Apple and their consumer base. Apple designs, builds and sells wonderful products for consumers.
We also had some people recently ranting about open source and against Apple because Apple does have proprietary software. Honestly, I did not see or hear anyone in the Apple store ranting against Apple or promoting open source as a kind-of-religion which requires worshipping. People in the store were happy, full of smiles and simply being happy surrounded by beautiful Apple products and helpful employees (many in a teaching role) in a super sleek, beautiful store and atmosphere.
Closing Comments
I am a big fan of open source, but unlike many other open source fans, I do not view open source as a type of religion and I don't have any religious-like zeal about open source software. There is a place in society for open source and a place in society for proprietary software. It's really misguided emotional zeal to disparage Apple for having the largest consumer market on the plant, educating users and selling beautiful, high performance consumer computing devices.
As both an Apple and an Linux user, I use macOS at home and Linux on remote servers. In other words, I own Apple products as consumer devices, which they are meant to be; and I own and lease Linux products in data centers. The market segments are different; and personally speaking, I am a. big fan of Linux and open source and a big fan of Apple.
Obviously, the 150-200 people in the flagship Apple store, having a great time on a Saturday night, were not bothered by Apple's business model.
In addition, we all know that Apple is fully committed to consumer privacy. There is no other large, global tech company in the world as dedicated to consumer privacy. It does not make sense for people who do not own Apple products (currently, I have nine Apple products registered to my Apple ID) to rant against Apple in favor of open source and in particularly, Linux distribution. I own Apple products, fully supported by Apple, and I own Linux products, fully support by no one but me. Personally, I love both!
Well, that about wraps up my thoughts after visiting the Apple flagship store in Bangkok.
Please share your thought if you have any; and please try to be objective even if you are zealous about open source!
Enjoy computing and stay creative!