The Apple Store's Christmas Vacation December 24, 1998 The Apple Store if you can believe it has closed for the holidays until January 5. They even go as far to include a "cute" explanation: "...while the computer-making elves work diligently to make the online Apple Store better than ever." Dell seems to be open. Amazon isn't turning away customers. The press has jumped on e-commerce sites that experience performance problems or that even go down for a few hours. But Apple decides to hibernate for two weeks.

There's no doubt a redesign and some announcement is coming down with a January 5 return (MACWORLD in San Francisco). I guess the guys at Good Reports can add this mistake to their report on The Apple Store. From the Good Reports report on the Apple Store: "The Mail Your Order page is an excellent example of what we like to call "brand suicide." Brand suicide is the process by which a company can tick off its customers to such a degree that they happily take their business to the company's direct competitors. This page accomplished this feat with flying colors." I noticed that the Store's was closed after reading Jakob Nielsen's spotlight on Useit.Com. In his spotlight of the closure, he mentions that it's, "A classic example of how a bad website can undermine a company and do active damage to its brand." Where have I heard that before? Think different. Reprise: Update on The Apple Store, December 26, 1998. An Apple Store entrance for educational institutions explains the non-cute reasons for the Christmas Vacation.