Apple opens first Manhattan store: So Ho debut kicks off string of store-openings

DSN Retailing Today, July 29, 2002 by Linda Saucerman

Product also can be found on the second floor, with Epson and other third-party printers, Mac and other brands of software, and a hands-on iPod MP3 player display. The iPod was a hot subject at the Expo because, in a move uncharacteristic of Apple, Jobs introduced a version compatible with rival Windows. Jobs said the PC-friendly iPod should serve as a gateway to its other Apple products.

Little Mac users also have a place at the Apple Store, with two large, round tables of computers at kids' eye levels and surrounded by life-size testimonial posters of children using Macs.

For Apple, the young could become a powerful part of the Mac fan base and be the ones to build retail sales. Wearing an "I think, therefore, I Mac" T-shirt, a visibly psyched 12-year-old Kyle Douglas came all the way from Houston, Texas with his mom to attend Macworld. For him, being in the same city as the biggest Apple store opening was like being at Disney World after attending a speech by Walt Disney himself.

"I've been using computers, like, my whole life," said Kyle. "Last year, I stopped using a PC and got a Mac, but I did this before the whole 'Switch' thing. Macs are so cool."

But the store opening wasn't just preaching to the converted. Behind Kyle a presenter teaching iPhoto told a theater audience, "For those PC users today thinking of switching, come on in, the water's great."