Swung by the Apple Store at Stanford to grab a spare Pencil and found myself slightly bemused by the contents of the shelves. There are things there I never expected to see at an Apple Store, ever.
Drones and Robots
Drones! Frikkin’ drones! And robots!
In addition to the DJI Phanton 4, the Apple Store also carried the Parrot BeBop and a few robots, including Star Wars’ BB8! It was like someone had curated the drones and robots shelves at a Toys R Us and a Best Buy and brought the best ones to the stainless steel shelves at Apple.
A Nest product
Apple didn’t carry the Nest thermostat because Nest didn’t make it compatible with HomeKit, and I got the feeling there was some cooling of the relationship between Apple and Nest, especially after they were acquired by Google. So I didn’t expect to see a Nest product (even one from a slightly controversial Nest acquisition) on the shelf, but sure enough, there it was.
A Sous Vide
The Sous Vide cooker from Anova comes highly rated and looks nice on the shelf. But it’s a darn cooker! In an Apple Store!
Does. Not. Compute. Also next to a kitchen scale.
The Pencil
No, not the Apple Pencil. I mean the Pencil by Fifty-Three Inc.. This was my favorite stylus for the iPad until I got the Apple Pencil, but it’s kinda funny to see Apple carry something - anything - that might cause even a tiny bit of brand confusion.
Then again, it’s all the way up there and easy to miss, so…
Even though I’m surprised to see these items in an Apple Store, it’s also somewhat heartening. Apple is evolving, and it’s nice to see some of these “Works with Mac/iOS” -type products show up in the same place you buy your aforementioned Macs and iDevices.