This article over at IFOAppleStore provoked me to dig back through the archives and find perhaps the top rated Ungenius article of all time.
The shape of today’s Genius Bar has more to do with the iPod than anything else. Whereas a Mac Genius in 2002 spent most of his time, logically, working with Macintoshes, the Mac Genius of 2006 spends far more time staring blankly at iPods. The 2002 Model Genius spent quality time with two, maybe three customers per hour. In 2006, he crams six or eight iPods into an hour and commonly spends an entire day handling only shiny white music players while a co-worker helps the Macintosh customers. In 2002, the Genius helped mostly level-headed, professional adults. Later, he helps mostly tantrum-throwing children and teenagers.
Ultimately, fixing the situation will be much more complicated than I posited, not just because the iPod has only grown since I wrote this in 2006 but also because the iPhone and iPad have since dwarfed even the iPod. Returning the Genius Bar to focus solely on Macs simply cannot happen at this point.
I’m not sure that forcing the existing staff to do more at once and extending their hours is quite the correct choice, though.
