Though the Circuit City chain no longer carries Apple products, the Apple badged employee program in CompUSA has entered its second phase, according to Apple Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson.
The company has staffed an additional 10 CompUSA stores with their own personnel to help man the Apple stores-within-a-store. Now 150 out of 200-plus CompUSAs have Apple badged employees, Anderson said. This program should continue to expand, and even morph into a similar program outside North America.
“We’re piloting some programs in the United Kingdom to replicate our CompUSA success in Europe,” Anderson said.
Apple has also added 75 more VARs [value added resellers], doubling the size of its pro video sales channels. Meanwhile, the company is, at long last, making some headway into government sales. Anderson said that government sales are still a small segment for Apple, but grew 60 percent last year. The CFO also thinks that strong double-digit growth in this market could be repeated in 2002.
“We’re seeing more government opportunities coming our way due to Mac OS X,” Anderson said. “With its stability, robustness, and security — all important attributes for government agencies — we think we’ve got a good opportunity for growth in this area.”