Apple Store

Full review
Start a conversation about corporate innovation and quality and what companies come to mind? There are certainly several that deserve mention, but one that is likely to rank high on the list is Apple. The brainchild of CEO genius Steve Jobs, Apple is on the cutting edge of technology and quality and the web site that showcases Apple computers many products is The Apple Store. Let's take a look inside this high tech web site:

What does this Web Site Offer?:
 
The Apple Store includes sections to make purchases of Apple products and other sections to learn more about Apple products. On the sales end, the web site includes sections such as:

Shop Mac
Shop iPod
Shop iPhone
Shop iPad

The Apple Store has several shopping areas that sell accessories; an education store; a business store; a government store; and an international store. The rest of the website wants to teach you all about Apple products and it includes separate tabs for:

Mac
iPod
iPhone
iPad
iTunes

Each of the above sections contains facts about each item, links to television ads, videos, and more. The Apple Store wants to you leave the web site knowing just about everything there is to know about each of the above products and, hopefully, be convinced to make a purchase now or some time in the future.

Final Thoughts:

The Apple Store is an essential online shopping resource for all things Apple and it's a web site I have frequented on occasion. I first got to know The Apple Store on a regular basis back when the iPhone was first released and I was very tempted to give in and make a purchase. I came to The Apple Store to get my fill on this phone and what it could do, but I also spent some time browsing through the rest of the Apple library of innovation and I continue to visit the Apple Store when I have a specific technological need to fulfill.

My latest venture to The Apple Store was to look for iPods, iPads, and Apple TV. My main interest for purchasing was the iPad and iPod, but I had heard about the Apple TV and was immediately pulled away to another part of the site to look at it and see what it has to offer. I browsed around and spent time looking at other sections of the site as well. This is one fact about The Apple Store that has held true since I first visited the site many years ago: No matter what I plan to buy, I inevitably end up distracted and I wind up looking at and reading about other Apple products. Apple has so many things to offer, so many cool products, there is almost no way to stay focused on one item when you visit The Apple Store.

If you come to the Apple Store with a specific purchase in mind and can resist the temptation to look around, you will find that the Apple Store is easy enough to use and that it contains a boatload of information about your chosen purchase. The best way to begin is to click on the link containing the general item you want (Mac, iPad, iPhone, etc.) and then go from there. If you already know the exact name of the item you want, you could perform a general search by entering the name in the search box. Once you get a list of results, you will find that Apple is pretty good at helping you narrow down your list of possible purchases. You can sort your results by price (high to low or low to high), alphabetically, by top sellers (which happens to be the default sort), by newest, or by highest rated. The options are plentiful enough to help you find what you want quickly and smoothly.

The Apple Store sends a quick e-mail to confirm a purchase and items ship rather quickly. There are 2- day shipping and next- day shipping options, but the best bet is to select standard shipping. It results in shipments that take place a few days or less after ordering and they arrive between 5 and 7 business days. But the best part of using standard shipping at The Apple Store is that the shipping is free! It is always music to my ears whenever a web site offers free shipping and The Apple Store earns some extra points for the zero- cost shipping and for the speed of shipping. There is even a financing option that is available for some but not all purchases, making it easy to get what you want now and pay later.

Ok, so shipping is free and product information is excellent, now what about the prices? Well, I have found that the prices offered at The Apple Store are good, but they are often not the best prices one can find on the world wide web. A quick comparison with Amazon.com, for example, often results in Amazon.com offering the same product for a few dollars less, and also with free shipping. This isn't true every time and with every product, but it is true often enough that Apple Store shoppers should consider price- comparing before they complete a purchase.

Overall, The Apple Store is a nice online store to learn about Apple computer products, browse for technology, and make purchases. The prices at The Apple Store aren't always the lowest on the web, but they are low enough and the free shipping certainly adds to the site's appeal. I like visiting The Apple Store just to browse at the latest innovations, but it certainly makes a good web stop for shopping and purchasing as well. I'm still not ready to give up my Windows operating system in favor of a MAC, but I like Apple products, the Apple company, and the Apple Store and I will be returning to this web site again.