Apple favouring Apple stores at the expense of partners

A leading former Apple reseller in Australia has claimed the tech giant unfairly prioritises its own sales channel over that of third party resellers.

The revelations come as Apple faces a possible anti-trust case in France, sparked by statements from one of the company's leading French partners which collapsed last year.

Frank Triantafyllou, director of Complete PC Solutions, was an Apple reseller until March 2012. He told CRN it is “an understatement” to say Apple favours its own channel over third parties.

Triantafyllou said he had corporate clients wanting to purchase Apple’s iPad, along with education-based solutions, however Apple indicated the hot-selling tablet was a retail-only proposition, and would not supply Compete PC Solutions with the products and services.

“The reality is that in the end I was happy to stop dealing with [Apple]” he said. “I’ve been converting potential Apple customers into customers for the HP LeapPad instead.”

CRN approached a number of Apple resellers for comment, however few were willing to go on the record for fear of angering the company.

One reason Apple has problems with the channel, and prioritises its own sales route, is the relative immaturity of its channel program, which only came into existence in the last few years.

Peter Low, a director at reseller and cloud provider The Cavalry, was cautiously critical of Apple’s channel program. However he added the caveat that the company has never come in over the top on any deal.

“Is their channel program as mature as, say, Cisco or Lenovo,” asked Low. “I’d say not. The key to good relations [with Apple] is staying close to your account manager.”

French raid

Last week French authorities raided Apple and seized documents in relation to the company's distribution partners. The raid was triggered by claims made by the chief executive of collapsed reseller, eBizcuss, that Apple had deliberately starved its third-party channel of product - in particular iPads and iPhones - in order to favour its own stores and direct on-line sales channel.

CRN contacted Apple Australia with Triantafyllou’s claims, however the company did not respond.

The revelations come at a time when Apple is beset by anti-trust investigations in the US into its ebook pricing practices. Locally, the company has also faced calls from independent senator Nick Xenophon into ebook pricing.

The company’s local managing director, Tony King, also appeared before a parliamentary inquiry into the way Apple prices its electronic soft-goods, such as music and videos at the iTunes Store. The inquiry wanted to know why Apple’s domestic prices are higher than those being paid in other jurisdictions, such as the United States.

Apple has also come in for heavy criticism, and threats of investigation, for its practices of shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions offshore.

Last year CRN broke the news that Apple had dumped around 200 local resellers with little warning or notice.