Exclusive: My Mac reveals path to Apple premium status

CRN: What's the program about?

SB: You can see it, obviously, [Apple's] stepped up. Before, I think an Apple premium reseller was only really branding, there was no uniform; they tried to make the shops the same but it was all different.

Now I can actually see why My Mac is an APR over an Apple reseller - when you walk into my Melbourne store you can tell you're walking into a premium reseller and there are some premium resellers out there that probably don't care to carry out in that manner.

I think the increased requirements from Apple will be good because it will help us stand apart from (lower-tier resellers). Apple is contacting every premium reseller.

Also, it has to be a certain amount of square metres some shops might not be able to fit into because they might not be the right size. Under the new program there is (only) one premium reseller (at the moment).

CRN: What doesn't your shop have that a direct Apple one does?

SB: We still can't do the iPhone (direct). We have a service bar, the equivalent of the (Genius bar).

CRN: Did you have to hire or train staff?

SB: We had staff, but all sales staff have to have Apple training now; it probably wasn't so controlled in the past. It's for free.

CRN: Apart from refit what else did you do?

SB: There's the training and the general look and feel. We have guidelines now where before we may have had guidelines but they were hard to follow because the premium channel was so fragmented.

Now, bringing in this new program and saying to people this is it - you either do it or don't - is good for the channel. It means we have to lift our game. The way we put out the machines, the number of demo machines - My Mac has never had this many points (of access).