Apple Rumored to Be Seeing Red Over Best Buy's iPad 2 Sales Stunt

[Michael Essany]

Our friends at Crunch Gear are reporting that Apple's ire has been raised by an iPad 2 sales stunt pulled by Best Buy personnel. A Best Buy employee claims that the store was intentionally hoarding reserves and holding off on selling the supply it had in stock. Why? That much isn't clear. And it is, indeed, monumentally baffling.

When Apple got wind of Best Buy telling customers that supplies were depleted (even though they weren't), executives in Cupertino got angry. Very angry. Chief among the reported hotheads was Tim Cook, the acting chief in Steve Jobs' absence. If the report in question is presenting accurate information, here's what we know: Apple is "blacklisting" Best Buy on the iPad 2 for the time being.

The tipster says the Apple rep at his branch of Best Buy "confirmed the story." But much like the editorial discretion of Crunch Gear suggests, it's important to take this sort of report with a grain of salt until we start noticing a complete and utter lack of iPad 2s at Best Buy.

Incredibly, Best Buy is making no shortage of headlines in terms of angering Apple. Earlier this week it was reported that Best Buy pulled a controversial ad from the promotional page for the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, a small but still established competitor of the iPad.

The ad showed an iPad-like product and a keyboard duct-taped together. Next to it was the Transformer. Above the tablets were the words: “Like that. But better.” The Transformer has a clip-on keyboard, while the iPad does not come with a keyboard, although Apple sells keyboard docks for the device.

It isn't known if Apple had something to do with the yanked ad, but we can't imagine the boys and girls in Cupertino would let this one slide if they knew about it.

Source: Crunch Gear, PC World

[EVILFRED]

**** apple !

[Bluemoldycheeze88]

Maybe their doing this to make up for the fake iPad stunt?

[iliveudie]

What happened to the retard who sold the iPad a day early?

[RICO_]

Don't f**k with Apple and their money. Or their ninjas will destroy you....and then go to work on you.

[fventura03]

i wanna see that ad...the asus one

[gtthomas4]

Here is the banned ad:

[Nasakii]

Here is the banned ad:

Hah! Awesome!

[chizzle187]

Hold on so does this mean i might not get the ipad from Best buy that i have reserved with a $100 deposit ?

[Cer0]

Ouch. But it makes Best Buy look bad not Apple. Best Buy has had iPads in stock but are holding them from the customers.

[swifty7]

but why? why wouldn't they sell their stock?

very strange!

[Mes]

^Inside job ... saving for special customers.....

Of course big brother Apple isn't happy. They will control every aspect, every small detail down to the letter ..... as long as we let them.

[politicalslug]

Good. Apple doesn't need Best Buy to move iPads, but Best Buy has done quite well for itself as an authorized Apple retailer. I don't know the whole story, but some retard at Best Buy sure screwed the pooch on this one.

[BenderRodriguez]

Well bestbuy employes probably get a discount on them, supply and demand=raise the price

I'd say good riddance Bestbuy Sucks on prices why not also suck on inside scams

[gramirez]

I can also attest that best buy is doing this our local store has 19 at the moment and they're holding them back because they're reasoning is....to build more stock and then sell. Which is messed up in my view. An email to sjobs and tcook is good right about now.

[iLoveWindows&iPhone]

^Inside job ... saving for special customers.....

Of course big brother Apple isn't happy. They will control every aspect, every small detail down to the letter ..... as long as we let them.

This is just a very dumb comment, in every aspect. Just think about it. Apple is struggling mightily to meet demand for this product, then it finds out one of it's biggest vendors of this product is hording them! "Big brother Apple"?? Any company, small or big would be very pissed about this sort of action. Oh, and you call this a "small detail"??? Really?? I'm not even gonna explain how stupid that part of the post is. I don't know if I have ever seen such a uneducated post here on modmyi.

[nightsoarer]

Well bestbuy employes probably get a discount on them, supply and demand=raise the price

I'd say good riddance Bestbuy Sucks on prices why not also suck on inside scams

No actually, Best Buy employees do not get a discount on these products. That's why they're classified as "Authorized Resellers," as they do not actually make money on the products themselves. They are sold "at cost." So unless you have something insightful to say, you might want to not comment on something you're uneducated on.

[PeezaPi]

I say Apple kick Best Buy as a distributor. They don't need them. Also ever since my gift cards didn't work towards "reward points", I stopped shopping there. That and the fact that a Frys Electronics opened a store pretty much right next door to the best buy. Granted their customer service might not be the greatest, but when I can walk in Frys and 99.9% of the time they have what I'm looking for while saving at LEAST $20 on computer equipment (except Apple because of their tight hold on pricing) and games, I'm all for it. Long live Frys!

[nightsoarer]

I say Apple kick Best Buy as a distributor. They don't need them. Also ever since my gift cards didn't work towards "reward points", I stopped shopping there. That and the fact that a Frys Electronics opened a store pretty much right next door to the best buy. Granted their customer service might not be the greatest, but when I can walk in Frys and 99.9% of the time they have what I'm looking for while saving at LEAST $20 on computer equipment (except Apple because of their tight hold on pricing) and games, I'm all for it. Long live Frys!

Yeah and 99.9% of the time their "stuff" is used and/or defective. I stopped shopping there after every time I purchased something I would literally have to return it due to the fact that it was either defective or clearly used. But anyway, to each his own. I personally would rather shop at a store where I know I'm getting a working product. And with that I say, long live Best Buy! ;-)

[scatman10]

This is just a very dumb comment, in every aspect. Just think about it. Apple is struggling mightily to meet demand for this product, then it finds out one of it's biggest vendors of this product is hording them! "Big brother Apple"?? Any company, small or big would be very pissed about this sort of action. Oh, and you call this a "small detail"??? Really?? I'm not even gonna explain how stupid that part of the post is. I don't know if I have ever seen such a uneducated post here on modmyi.

I have.... and so have you, when people post "First!" and nothing else, yet they managed to be the second person to make the post lmao.