The on-again, off-again relationship between Apple and Sears is off again. By the end of the year, Sears will (once again) no longer carry Apple products.
“Apple and Sears have mutually agreed to part ways and will be phasing out our partnership over the remainder of 2001,” Sears representative Tom Nicholson told MacCentral.
Sears carried Mac products for several years before abandoning the platform during Apple’s “dark days” of 1997-98.
Sears return to the Apple fold was announced during Apple iCEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address at the 1999 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference. At the time, it was felt that the chain was a natural for selling the extremely hot iMacs because it had 844 stores and served 32 million households.
Reportedly, 54 percent of those purchasing computers from Sears were first time buyers, making the chain a perfect match with the iMac statistics. Last month Sears announced it was going to sell only the entry-level iMacs and iBooks.
No reason has been given for the dissolution of the Apple-Sears partnership.