My wife worked@ Target for more than 5 years, 2003-2008, so I think that I have a good idea of what they market and how it's done there, to whom, and why Apple would be a good thing for them to get into. People go to Target because of convenience and massive brand selection potential, where you can purchase virtually anything in the electronics dept you'd care to buy within reason, and Apple certainly fits into the "within reason" designation.
It will be a good thing for both Apple and Target, this new liason...and here's why...not to mention consumers either curious or dead-set on an Apple purchase. People buying at Target are also notoriously "brand conscious and on the fence" about virtually everything in the electronics field, having no loyalty to anyone actually it seems, so having Apple at Target means that many folks who are certainly curious about Apple products will get an up-close and personal view of the Apple experience, without ever having to go into an Apple Store.
This new thing will bring Apple products to a class of buyers who would most likely NOT go into an Apple Store otherwise, and they will be able to buy the whole lineup of Apple products there at Target, just watch and remember I wrote that for future reference.
And therein lies the meaning and the message both, simple, clear as a bell, and full of intrinsicly non-Apple-weighted content.
People buying Apple at Target will become legitimately Apple-friendly instantly, and they WILL be able to make purchase decisions there that would not be possible at the Apple Store, without any pressure, coercion by Apple employees, ie the "genius concepts" et al, so consider this move by Apple to be many buyer's first opportunity to have an Apple product MINUS the Apple experience that one gets every time at Apple Stores.
That's what this is all about ladies and gents here who are perplexed and unable to grasp the motives and concepts involved with this major deviation from Apple staying in "exclusively niche-oriented Fringe-Land, quirky and perhaps even exclusively separate from the PC market itself," in other words many hundreds of thousands of consumers will benefit greatly from this "mini-marriage" of Apple and generic society here in the USA at worst, and at best it will expose these special and huge numbers of USA consumers to Apple itself. a non-denominational Apple experience of the most basic means possible.
Apple will be experimenting into other non-exclusive markets as the days tick by in 2012 and further on also, so welcome to the new "Tim Cook" Apple-brand exhibition of Apple in the marketplace of PC products, and don't forget it's never done this sort of thing before, touche'!
This new buyer-experience will be good for Apple, and good for consumers alike from all walks of life, ie the Best Buy and Target type of folks that Apple would be well-served (and vice versa) to initiate contact with, so there you go, the answer and the questions about this new alliance answered in one sentence or two, or three, whatever!
"Hello World," and a softening of hard-line big business model Apple exclusivity existed in until now, or shall I say until this point in time. Target and Best Buy represent legitimacy to the Apple brand for millions of normal, everyday folks who would never have dreamed of owning Apple products and getting a taste of Apple's special kind of PC stuff, iPod, iPad, AppleTV and computers alike, not to mention the iPhone, most likely Apple's biggest money maker ever, which will continue to grow and prosper in this new area of Apple market-speak, Mom and Pop-Land, non-geek Apple buyers alike...welcome Apple into the new territory it has chosen to avoid, literally speaking again up to now, because anybody's $$'s is what Apple wants and will get from this new, friendly, discount-conscious buyer market that Best Buy and Target represent, a new area of built-in sales and exposure for the company that needs all the ca$h the market will allow presently and in the future.
This is indeed new territory and Apple will be watching this whole deal unfold with rapt attention, all cylinders lit and firing, you betcha, I am certain of this 100%.......and even a closed-minded fool should be, too.
Thanks for the opportunity to explain this simple 2+2=4 math lesson for all of you who don't understand the situation just yet, as it's my time to comment about it because I am totally cross-platform with Windows, Apple, Linux, IBM and virtually all segments of PC consumption inhabiting my world.
Welcome to the New Age of computer integration where all brands will begin to interact with the pulbic $$'s out there for market share, ie it's 2012 not 1999 you know what I mean? And if any of my statements in this post are "foreign" to your understanding of the PC consumer world market today, wake up and smell the coffee, nice people!
