Apple Store employees in the dark about iPad

I work for an Apple Specialist and we're not allowed to reserve or purchase any new products until all pre-orders have been filled. It's great when the customer has more hands-on experience with a product than you do.

@danw13335

Very little going on in the Apple community that's not iPad related? Seriously? Did Apple lay off all of it's other software and hardware developers? Are all of the employees at Cupertino sitting by the phones waiting to hear from everyone on Saturday for product reviews? Is Apple run out of someone's basement?

Very little? You don't think they pretty much moved on after they announced it in January, and have pretty much let the factories in China make these things while they do something more than "very little"?

In the words of Spock, "I find your logic...fascinating."

That's not really unusual. When the unibody MacBook Pros came out, they knew only what the specs on the box said, and they came in a couple days before launch. When they say they don't mean anything, they mean it.

a friends of mine is an employee fr an apple retail store. he told me that they are allowing them to come in for a few hours before launch to play with the new toys. and they were also not allowed to reserve one either.

I worked at Apple for a year, from the 3G launch to the 3GS launch, and we are ALWAYS in the dark, but that is the fun part of it.

We would get customers all day long that thought we knew more, the never believed us.

Best thing ever was when we had a line of like 500 people outside and they were looking through the glass doors as we (the employees) played with the 3GS for the first time right before we opened.

We never know, it's always been like that, it won't change. That's what makes Apple Apple...and I love it!

I'm a Genius at an Apple store and we are completely in the dark. In fact we are to go to work at 6 AM Saturday morning for a quick 2:30 hour workshop on how to mess with the iPad and learn the ins and outs....all before the 9AM opening

If they need to know anything about the iPad, they can always come to TUIW (The Unoffical iPad Weblog), since that's really the only news anyone writes about here.

Ick.

I worked at one of the first Apple stores for many years, and one of the most irritating things about the job was people coming in to discuss the rumors. Like people really think that Apple would share any secrets with retail people.

People just would not give up. I'd say "do you honestly believe we know anything. You read the same rumor sites we do." Usually would elicit a response like "aww C'MON you gotta know something".

Retail employees are barred from speaking to the media and have been from the beginning.

Retail employees are barred from speculating on rumors and have been from the beginning.

Apple typically withholds any type of training on a product until after it has been released in store. I remember literally getting 5 minutes of crunch training on products before a special event. Puts employees at a disadvantage but Apple certainly hold secrecy higher than having employees ready on day one.

So do your local Apple retail employees a favor and give them a break about speculating on rumors etc.

You have to be seriously in the dark about Apple retail to consider this "news".

Advance information about new Apple products is always on a "need to know" basis, and retail staff... do not need to know. This is true about new Macs, new iPods, even new accessories. And *especially* all-new products like the original iPhone and the iPad. Even the store managers are left out of the loop. The stories don't get merchandise in early for the staff to play with. In fact, since most store employees (including Geniuses and Creatives) will be very busy on launch day selling the new iGadget, they will get their first chance to play with one when they take their first break and get to play with a floor display unit.

After all - Apple execs reason - Geniuses won't be fixing them on launch day (DOA units will just be swapped), and Specialists don't actually need to engage in salesmanship that day. On launch day they are all just cashiers. (Except Managers, who are bouncers and crowd-control.) So the only advance training any of them get is in how to execute sales transactions. When the in-store activation of iPhones was introduced, the staff were trained a week or so before 3G-Day... using web-based simulations. But since iPads will apparently be sold more like the original iPhone (i.e. no in-store-activation needed), you can be sure that your friendly neighborhood t-shirt-clad Apple employee knows as little as you do.

Because they NEVER do.

Apple sales/employees/associates aren't allowed to blog or comment about apple products on forums such as this. Poor apple employees. Not only are they left in the dark they also have their mouths wired shut.