Precise angle of open MacBooks in the Apple Store

Carminegallo Files 2012 06 Macbook-Pro-Wretina-Display-E1339684336292 Before Apple stores open in the morning, employees use an iPhone app to ensure that each MacBook screen is opened to exactly the same angle. Writing at Forbes.com, Carmine Gallo, author of The Apple Experience, claims that "the main reason notebook computers screens are slightly angled is to encourage customers to adjust the screen to their ideal viewing angle… in other words, to touch the computer!" (According to the URL in Forbes, it's a 70 degree angle, but Gallo isn't specific in the text of the column.) "How Apple Store Seduces You With the Tilt of Its Laptops"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

Clever bastards. Not satisfied with some of money, they want it all.
retepslluerb

An iPhone app?

Sounds like a waste of time, when a piece of sturdy paper would do the job much faster and more reliable.
- AnamDuine
  
  Yes, it’s rather obtuse of them.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    That’s a cute way of putting it.
    - Felton / Moderator
      
      You’re right.
      - oasisob1
        
        I saw sales men setting laptops up that way one morning.
      - grimc
        
        You’re all squares.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        You have a point, but only to a degree.
      - Felton / Moderator
        
        I think we’ve gone off on a tangent.
      - awjt
        
        This conversation has become EXTREMELY protracted.
franko

i think this is only getting repeated because it’s apple. certainly many other places do this kind of thing too.
- ROSSINDETROIT
  
  Of course it’s news because it’s Apple. Be prepared for reporting on the specs for the texture of the Apple Store bathroom tissue, the air turnover rate in the showroom and the precise gradient of ambient light from front door to the cash register. It’s Apple so it’s news.
  - penguinchris
    
    Apple also does retail better than most anyone else. There’s value in reporting stuff like this because it may finally get the point across to other retailers that paying attention to details and having your store be pleasant for the customers pays off.
    - ROSSINDETROIT
      
      I worked in a mall with an Apple Store and a number of high end shops. Apple does consumer electronics better than their direct competitors. Bang and Olufsen has pretty nice shops as well. But Apple ‘does retail better than most anyone else’ except Gucci, Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton and that rank of stores.
    - pjcamp
      
      Maybe, but I personally hate those antiseptic pits. It combines the worst aspects of the hospital gift shop and the O.R.
technobach

Wait , so uniformitiy of a product in encourages people to customize the one they try? Has this been studied?
- retepslluerb
  
  I think the idea is to position the display in such a way that a customer feels compelled to adjust it. Once he touched it, the barrier to interact with it even more comes down.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  It’s just encouraging engagement, and once someone engages a product they’re more likely to buy it. So in a in a sense, yes it’s been studied.
http://twitter.com/metal_max Max Allan

So, why don’t the staff go round resetting the angle throughout the day?
If it makes a difference first thing in the morning (assuming the last person at night left it at a non-optimal angle for the next person) then it should make a difference all day long?

If it’s about getting you to touch it :
Why only set the display tilt angle, that just means you grab the top of the display. Why not twist them so the display isn’t pointing straight at the customer. Then you have to push at the body of the laptop too. And that’s much more likely to need adjusting because you have to straighten it to use the keyboard/trackpad. I can live with the display being slightly out of alignment but if the keyboard is sideways, I have to tweak it.

Damn, I think I just gave away a million dollar marketing job with Apple…
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Because then things would look a bit messy, you have to get the balance right.
  
  Although I agree about repositioning. Maybe it’s done in the morning because then everything looks effortless, once you see people meticulously fiddling with everything in the shop it takes some of the sheen off of everything.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Damn, I think I just gave away a million dollar marketing job with Apple…
  
  The maxim that you need to move the merchandise if you want to move the merchandise has been around for decades, possibly since Roman times.
Benjamin Rockhold

An iPhone app now? I worked at Apple Retail only last year, and we just did this by eye. Or, if we were not feeling like doing work, the little acrylic stands that hold the specs can be flipped up on end, and they have the same angle.
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  The advantage of using the app is in configuration management and metrics. Head office can tweak the angle of the laptop screens just by deploying a different version of the app to different stores. And they can experiment with a few stores by giving them a special version and watching the sales numbers.
  - retepslluerb
    
    Actually, different angles might make sense, since not all populations have the same average height.
    
    However, one app should suffice – it would then load the correct angle according to the geo data gathered by the phone.
steve849

The display is not open 70 degrees. It is open more than 90 degrees. Perhaps 110 degrees is accurate.
- Wreckrob8
  
  110 + 70 = 180. It says the screens are angled at 70 degrees not open at 70 degrees, so it could be taken either from front or back, I suppose.
http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

The great thing about it is that it’s not the optimal viewing angle, but one likely to make you want to adjust it.
- awjt
  
  It’s clever, definitely. Also, having short screensaver reactivation times, so you jiggle the mouse/trackpad to make it go away when you walk up, as well as having intriguing apps on the dock/front screen. sell sell sell, and apple does it well
  - retepslluerb
    
    Well, the angle and the reactivation times can be classed as sales tricks, I guess, but the apps?
    
    I mean, this is a a computer. I want to see what I can do with it.
jwkrk

OCD marketing…
Sxe

Ha, whenever I’ve gone into an Apple store, instead of touching the screens, I’ve adjusted my standing angle to see them. I think it’s ’cause my perception is they’re fragile, expensive, not robust, and too nice for a down-and-dirty type like me to get his grubby hands all over! I’ve never been an Apple guy.
Terry Fairbrother

Note to self. When visiting an apple store have a greasy mcD’s with fries. Dont wipe fingers after. Leave smudges all over lid.

Oh the evil in me :)
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Starch is harder to remove.
unclemike

Man, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been seduced by the tilt of a laptop…
teapot

This seems like something XKCD would do…. so I made it for him :)

Obligatory
James B

Seems like a sliding T bevel, locked at 110 degrees, would be faster than an app.
V

Soo… ‘I like the tilt of his laptop’ is the new ‘I like the cut of his jib’?