Apple VAR Hopes For Best In Shadow Of Apple Flagship

Michael Oh, president of Apple reseller Tech Superpowers, situated right outside Apple's back door, will be waiting to see whether Apple's latest retail outlet is a boon to his services business or a nail in its coffin.

Up until last week, Oh hadn't heard a peep from Apple on what its plans were for working with local resellers when it opened the store, lining its shelves with iPods, iPhones and Macs.

"Our tactic as an independent reseller, especially with the experiences other independent resellers have had with Apple, is that we want to get in touch with the Apple store on every level," said Oh.

"Definitely at least management. We'd love to get in touch with an executive. We've been trying to get in touch with all the right people. My experience is not that they're ignoring us. They're just too busy opening this massive store to pay attention," he said. "As of a week ago we hadn't had any success in getting in touch with anybody."

Tech Superpowers eventually discovered who would be manager at the new Apple store, and last week the manager and assistant manager dropped by to visit. After chatting with Tech Superpowers' sales staff, the assistant manager bought a laptop bag from the reseller, which Oh called a "gesture of friendliness."

The staff even showed the Apple managers the Web cam they'd had recording the construction of the store from their window. Oh even went so far as to pull a page from the Red Sox Nation playbook and bury a Tech Superpowers shirt in concrete of the Apple store.

"I think they were entertained by our antics and got to get an idea of what we were really all about," Oh said. "We explained our services and what we provide that can really be helpful to the Apple stores."

The Apple store managers' visit helped ease the stress Oh felt wondering if his business could survive literally in the shadow of the Apple store.

"It was a huge relief to have the manager walk in. It's an acknowledgment, and a huge acknowledgement from him and his staff, that we exist and that we're an important part of the Apple ecosystem and they want to know about us," Oh said.

"Hopefully that's a very fruitful first step in the relationship between the two stores."

But in spite of the Apple store's friendliness, Oh is still wondering why Apple kept everything hush-hush for so long.

Last Sunday, Oh learned from an article in The Boston Globe that Apple had scouted the store's location back in 2000 and had been waiting for its existing tenant to move out.

"A portion of Apple or some people knew that this store was going to be in our back yard, and they knew that for eight years," he said. "Up until a week ago the only contact we had in any sense was that people said 'Yeah, it's an Apple store and its going to be there'."

Oh is hoping that his company's new relationship with the Apple store winds up being a boon for Tech Superpowers.

His company's profits are driven by its professional services offerings, and he hopes Apple refers on-the-spot repairs for business customers or those looking to do data recovery, something Apple does not offer, he said.

"We do assessments and managed services and a tremendous breadth of professional and business-class services which Apple never touches," Oh said. "That's where we really hope that this partnership goes."