Susan Berfield and Matthew Boyle writing for Bloomberg Businessweek had an interesting writeup on how Best Buy is bucking the trend in retail and actually thriving despite competition from Amazon.
 When I was working for Herman Miller I was the lead financial analyst supporting their Miller SQA division. We had just launched the new Q System office line to combat Haworth’s encroachment into our territory. We priced our furniture with lofty volume expectations but a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. It took a lot longer to meet our volume targets than we expected and in the meantime we were losing a lot of money. Until Herman Miller finally achieved their volume goals the internal critics were calling for the Q line to be killed.
The Town Square Concept Is Brilliant  Apple’s vast network of brick-and-mortar stores gives them an advantage over almost every other tech company. No one else offers personal customer support like the Genius Bar. The Apple Stores place them leagues ahead of other internet juggernauts. The newest addition, the first Town Square themed Apple Store in Milan Italy described by 9to5 Macsounds amazing:
Just As I Predicted  Ha! I was just joking a few months ago when I “exposed” Amazon’s secret plan to take on Apple and Google. But The Verge reported that Amazon is bringing the features of the Echo Show to their tablets.
Will AT&T's Stankey Ruin a Good Thing?  Recently, AT&T’s top media executive walked into HBO and insinuated that they are losing money and need to work harder.
For the Good of Apple, The Shareholders Need to Step In  Private corporations and their CEOs are free to advocate for any issues that they’d like. However, they need to be prepared to accept any consequences that may entail, which is why most corporations try to stay away from speaking out on political issues. There is no financial upside to upsetting half of your customer base.
Why My Kids Never Ask to Play Video Games  With all the talk about "Digital Wellness" I thought I'd repost something that I'd actually written almost two years ago. Even back then parents were concerned about how this new phenomenon of mobile device screen time was impacting the mental health of their kids. We didn't have a lot of tools back then from Apple so my wife and I got creative and worked up our own little system which both freed us from their begging for screen time and still allowed them to play their games. Two years later and we still follow this system pretty much the same way as I'd written it. -- Robert 6/24/18
If Software Is Equal, the Picture Changes  I was listening to Jason Snell and Myke Hurley’s podcast Upgrade this week, and I heard Jason say something that really made me stop and think. Where exactly does the clamshell form factor of the laptop really shine? And is it a given that it’ll always be around?
 I’ve done logistics analysis at the Fortune 500 level long enough to learn one thing: if new technology doesn’t impact the “master logistics equation” very much, nothing is going to change. That’s why I’m skeptical about the social impact of self-driving cars.
Buying a Head Start vs Building From Scratch  Speed costs money. Whether you’re shipping a package or traveling across the country the principle is the same. The faster you wanna go, the more it’s gonna cost. Financially, the question always boils down to, is the extra expense justified?
Tesla's Overhead Problem  Months before Hillary Clinton was officially the DNC presidential candidate it was obvious to everyone that Bernie’s race was impossible. Hillary had such a huge lead in super-delegates that any route to victory for Bernie looked bleak. But Bernie was still raising tons of money and turning out huge crowds. So Bernie was in denial for a long time that his race was over even though the math was against him. Bernie soldiered on for months, but we all knew it was a lost cause. This is the position that the Tesla Corporation finds itself in today.
Are Hardware Interfaces All That Define the Mac?  During this week’s WWDC keynote, Craig Federighi made an interesting turn where he stated Apple’s commitment to the Mac. The bottom line was that Apple has no plans to merge macOS and iOS. Both are necessary. MacBook Pros however, are not.
Who Is Your True Master?  Yesterday Apple unveiled a new App called Screen Time which will give you stats on how much you use your digital devices and what you’re looking at. That should be interesting. I actually heard some people express surprise that Apple would do something like this as if it was against their interests. This is great for Apple.
Enough of Trying to Make MacBooks Please iPad User  One of my biggest problems with tech writers is that many of them don’t seem to live in the real world. When it comes to the iPad, many of them are still talking about how the iPad needs to be able to be able to run XCode, better multi-tasking, or more powerful automation before it can be considered a primary computer. What world do they live in? Because in corporate America, most people do one thing at a time, and they do an awful lot of that one thing. Furthermore, we barely stress even an iPad processor writing all those e-mails.
Elon Musk Brings the Frog-mobile to the Masses  There's been so much written about Tesla's financial meltdown and quality problems that everyone is overlooking one major problem with the Model 3. This car is just freakin' ugly.
Whenever I see a Model 3 all I can think of is how it looks like a frog. I suppose this is the unfortunate consequence of not needing a grill. The Model S at least looked sleek and was desirable from a purely aesthetic point of view. The Model 3, not so much. So besides everyone thinking you couldn't afford the pretty Tesla, you gotta put up with being seen in the ugliest car since the Pontiac Aztek.  It is being reporting that customers who abuse the return policy are getting banned by Amazon. To which I say “Bravo”.
The 5.8” Screen Hits the Sweet Spot  I was pretty vocal with my discontent that Apple had given the new Apple iPhone X a taller and narrower aspect ratio. I was upset that text and landscape video would get smaller. Which is true, but after actually using the iPhone X, I’m sold. Apple truly hit the sweet spot and created an iPhone that’s got a Plus-sized screen in the smaller body.
 Ben Lovejoy reported on a great story this week from Business Insider which illustrates where iPads are beating laptops in the business world. This story hit close to hoe for me because I’m also finding an iPad superior to my laptop on a daily basis in my own accounting job.
 I had written a while back about how there seems to be an almost universal circling of the wagons amongst every major automaker to not provide a decent place to put your phone on the dash. This is despite empirical evidence which shows that when you outlaw phone use while driving that the accident rate goes up.
Or Hit the Throttle  When I was working with Gateway Computers I was friends with the Western Director of Government Sales. He was the point man for increasing sales volume in California to schools and local governments. From a margin standpoint, it was a brutal business.
Where Amazon and Apple Are Different  In the automotive world, there is often debate over whether cars are luxury vehicles with a sporty side or performance vehicles that are luxurious. The classification matters because it colors the standard to which you hold it against. For instance, a luxury barge that has a sporty flair can be forgiven for not being able to hang with an M5 or a Giulia Quadrifoglio in the acceleration department. But it sure as hell better be quieter and have more cup holders.
Capitalism Is Restoring Balance to the Retail World  I love shopping on Amazon. The convenience, selection, and pricing all make for quite the inviting shopping avenue. I’m not a big fan of Alexa but as a retailer I love Amazon. But Ivan Mazour at the The Next Web writes about selling through Amazon as some kind of deal with the devil where you end up screwed in the end.
The Production Rate Is Now Irrelevant  This has been an absolutely amazing week for Tesla watchers. For months now, everyone has been saying that pretty soon either the bulls or the bears would start to be proven right. Well, all the news has been going the bears’ way lately.
Bringing the Apple Pencil to the Low-Cost iPad Was a Shrewd Move  Apple made the right decision when they chose to expand Apple Pencil usage to the low cost iPad. If I had to pick one feature from the iPad Pro to move to the cheaper iPad it definitely would have been the ability to write and draw with the Apple Pencil.
I’ve been using an iPad Pro on a daily basis at work for about two years. It’s an indispensable tool which replaced my Moleskine notebook. Over that time, I’ve sold 4 other iPad Pros to co-workers who saw how I was using mine. The Timeline Has Echos of Fraud Past  Tesla’s recent announcement that they’d suddenly achieved an over 2000 units/week rate on their Model 3 was met with a great deal of skepticism.
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Robert PerezManufacturing and distribution analysis since 1993. 
Perezonomics is available in Apple News
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