Apple launches One to One and Personal Shopping

In response to comment number 11 - the personal shopping will be given by regular ol' mac specialists. No special training or distinction will be given

From my experience of Apple stores, Apple already provided the "Personal Shopper" experience for people who needed help understanding the switching process and what they would get, what they should get to fit their various needs, and any other questions that arose. I think Apple is just dedicating an entire section of their staff this with special training and sales experience instead of having some guy off the floor try to do it. Like I said, every time I have been in the Apple store, there are tons of clueless people who want to buy stuff and are trying to get their answers. This just formalizes that process and makes Apple stores more boutique-like.

Err.. I've spent hours with mac specialists in store talking about what piece of kit is best for me, what software, what hardware, etc etc, already - without having to book in advance, and free all round. This just adds a waiting list to what apple employees (at least, here in the UK) offered already...

PERSONAL SHOPPING IS FREE
consider it the genius bar, only for BEFORE you buy a product and want help deciding. The apple store has done this for awhile, by handing out TalkMac cards and telling people to go to a website and enter an activation code to sign up for a FREE 1 hour appointment to get help choosing a product. Now the cards are gone and the link is on the retail website (much like the GB appointment system).
You do not NEED an appointment to buy a product, *just as you are able to do stand-by at the GB* but this guarantees you an hour to yourself with a specialist (which, on a busy Saturday afternoon in a lot of stores is IMPOSSIBLE to come by)

Sounds like you guys are unclear on some things, there are now three different now unrelated services.

1) Personal shopping, as number seven mentioned is FREE, and you anyone can sign up at apple.com/retail/personalshopping. And no you don't have to have one to get help.

2) OnetoOne is personal training for $99/year, still a nice deal if you are new to mac, or trying to learn a pro app for the fist time.

3)ProCare is everything now everything else that ProCare had , and now includes a backup consultation, and service for up to three computers

Guys, please read carefully. The One to One service costs $99, but the Personal Shopper is FREE to anyone and everyone, and you can make your appointment up to 2 weeks in advance. No fee or subscription required.

Ya know, every now and then Apple does something that reminds me that, beneath the ultra hip, laid back surface, it is still a behemoth corporation.

This is an excellent case in point.

I remember when .mac first came out. It was a service that was unparalleled. I could have some storage, a grovy @mac.com email address and it integrated with my Macintosh desktop experience. Best of all, it was free. Sure, sometimes it was slow; maybe it was unreliable at times, but it worked fairly well and I enjoyed it.

But then Apple wanted to start charging me for it and not significantly increase the service. So I promptly gave .mac the finger and moved on to greener, more Google-y pastures.

This seems like a similar thing: increase cost and decrease service level. It's disrespectful to knowledgeable customers and disingenuous to less savvy consumers.

When it comes to the personal shopping service, gimme a break! I've never had a good experience in the Apple Store. In fact, I've often thought that the only way to get any customer service at all would be to pay for it.

Looks like I was right.

Morning! This is a cool idea, I think what they might be tapping into is the fact that there are many many Apple customers who buy more then one of various products in a year. $99 bucks a year isn't bad to have personlized service ever time you want to look around (not that you would need any more convincing to buy anything)

Actually there might be a fair size market for this. One one that seems most apt to take advantage of this would be small business owners.

Imagine you have a business and you are tired of your window machines crashing, getting viruses, etc.; and you decide to go with Apple. But you have no clue what to get. Not to mention the decision of what software to choose.

Just one example, but any customer that is in need of multiple computers would get a benefit from this service. There are other example with families, but I bet Apple is doing this to help the small business owners.

You know, I don't know how helpful a personal shopper would be. I mean, for basic things like "would a Mac Pro, iMac or Mac Mini be better for me?" and "Should I buy an iPod, iPod Nano or iPod Shuffle?" they'd be helpful at the start, and they could certainly recommend how my RAM and what size HDD, but who buys procare BEFORE buying a computer?

Once you have your Mac, I can't really think of an instance I would need a personal shopper in an Apple Store. It's not like their product lines are particularly diverse. I mean, what I'm going to ask them, "Would a 20-, 23-, or 30-inch ACD?" That'll take five minutes.

Perhaps with software questions? I suppose there they diversify somewhat.

But it's not like at Best Buy, where you have a gigantic wall of HDTVs and you want to know which one's better for you. With Apple, the wall is kind of small.