NZMac.com users interview Steve Ford

At home we have an eMac & iMac G4 for the girls, and the wife uses an iMac G5. For work I get to use a PowerBook G4 (15"). We are just about to make the move to MacBook Pro (when we can clear the backlog we currently have). Even when I was at Toshiba we had Macs in the house. By the way in those days I wasn't the only head of PC company in NZ to be using Mac's at home!!!

Absolutely love the iPod, bought one 6 months prior to joining Renaissance (which the girls now use) I have an iPod shuffle for when I'm on the bike (not too often). My entire collection now sits on a iPod 60GB. I haven't listened to so much music for so long, most weekends another CD gets added to the collection. For those interested I'm a huge New Order/Joy Division fan, Fat Freddy's Drop would be the fav album at the moment.

Mail, Mail & Mail....at work, at home we are big users of iLife given that we have family back in England. iLife '06 is a great suite of apps. We take lots of photos of the girls and then publish with iWeb. We have done some home videos for family and friends. I have just started to get into Final Cut Pro, hoping to take my home movies to another level.

Apple.com, MacSurfer, CNET.com, PC World and Reseller News are the first daily views. I read Robert Cringley on PBS.org on a regular basis. BBC News and Sporting Life keeps me updated with most of the UK sport needs, and of course NZMac.com

No the closest I came was when I took a group of customers from the UK to Cupertino. Steve Jobs walked passed at the Cupertino campus dressed in t-shirt, shorts and sneakers.

It was my first visit to Las Vegas and NAB, amazing town and amazing show. It was great to see so many Macs running demo's on so many vendors stands. The Apple presence was very professional as you would expect. Getting anywhere near the Apple stand was a challenge in itself. We managed to meet up with a number of key third partner vendors that we believe will add value to what our NZ customers are doing with the likes of Final Cut Pro etc.

Love the new Sony XD Cam, sat through their presentation twice. And of course the launch of the MacBook Pro 17", Apple ran several presentations using the MacBook Pro 17" one on mobile editing and another using Shake for 2K compositing, a first on a laptop.

It's freaky being able to boot into XP, we have been giving it a good test in the office and it truly works (although it is still beta software). We have had lot of interest from PC users who would love to use a Mac but still need to run the odd Windows app. We are also testing other options like Parallels VM product. We had news last week that one large client has ordered several Macs to replace some Dell hardware and will be running XP on the Macs. This is just the start of things to come. I read the Robert Cringley piece as well, interesting view on what might happen.

We have had a great relationship with Apple both in Australia and the US for over 20 years now, they have been a tremendous help over those years in developing the market in New Zealand. Having stable management at Renaissance as been a key advantage. Both Paul Johnston (current MD) and Mal Thompson (ex MD) have maintained a very close relationship over the years with the key senior management at Apple. One of our main roles is to ensure that our friends at Apple Australia understand the differences between the two markets. They recognise the value that Renaissance bring to the Apple market in New Zealand.

We can ask as many questions we like but getting an answer is another thing. Even when I worked at Apple UK we had no insider info on new products and services. I remember being ushered into the theatre at Apple UK, up came a live link with the US and Steve Jobs introduced the very first iMac to us and to the world at the same time.

Apples policy is that it does not comment on any future products or services until they are launched. Not having product roadmaps and a clear understanding of when products are likely to be end of life or when we will see a change in pricing does prove challenging. But those are the rules that Apple works by and we must make the most of what is available. There are certain times of the year, Macworld, WWDC etc when we know Apple are more likely to announce changes.

Renaissance has no plans to open an online music store in NZ.

Yes at times, we do our level best to promote and support the Apple brand in the best way possible. We also have responsibilities to the shareholders of Renaissance. I don't feel that we hide behind Apple, it may be a case that some people may not like the message we have to deliver as Apple's representative in New Zealand. Again the fact that we are unable to comment on future products or services is annoying to many users, but those are the guidelines we have to work under. I feel as a distributor we actually have a little more flexibility than some of the Apple subsidiaries around the world.

I refer back to my earlier comment re. the relationship and development of the brand in New Zealand. I don't think the comment was too simplistic. We try to maintain the relationship as though we are part of Apple Australia. We get a tremendous amount of help from everybody at Apple Australia, even those whose remit does not include NZ

I believe Apple are marketed better and broader than most of the PC brands. Over the last 12 months we have never seen so much money spent on branding by Apple in NZ. Many tens of thousands of dollars have been spent on TV, Adshels (Bus Shelters) Billboards, Magazines etc. Renaissance support that branding with tactical advertising in conjunction with our channel partners. We then have large retailers like Harvey Norman and Noel Leemings ranging Apple products in most of their catalogues, these reach many millions of homes during the year.

Given the marketing budget that we have available I believe we do a very good job of promoting Apple. Could it be better, of course it could and we are continually reviewing our marketing activities to make sure we are getting the best value for our dollars

We made the decision to stop doing the roadshows as we had to manage our limited marketing budget to the best of our ability, and we felt smaller, more targeted events would achieve this. Also we were in many ways preaching to the converted.

We have plans to expand the Play Music seminars to cover off other Pro Based apps like Final Cut etc. The current Play Music series has over 750 registered attendees, plus the team (Scott Bulloch our Audio Specialist, Brad Carter from Steriogram, and King Kapisi) are visiting a number of schools from primary through to secondary. If you are not yet registered for the event I strongly suggest you do so. It's a great learning experience even for those who have been using Logic & GarageBand for while.

In the education space, our iSchools and Bus Tours are continually over-subscribed. These allow the attendees to spend quality time working with Mac based applications and understanding how Apple can make a difference in the classroom. We have also been looking at how we could use the successful iSchool formula to offer training to non-education users.

On top of that you can step into more locations than ever before (be that an AppleCentre or retail partner) any day of the week and see the latest Apple technology along with a wide selection of third party software and hardware.

We have had the same TV campaigns in NZ as the US for the last 4 quarters so fingers crossed we will get the "Get A Mac" campaign here too. This will depend on whether Apple have negotiated the rights to play the adverts outside of the US. Hopefully you will have all seen the latest ads on apple.com.

Apple has done a great job in closing the price gap between PC's and Mac over the last 2-3 years. When you take into account the excellent software (iLife '06) that comes with the Mac and the lower cost of ownership over the life of a Mac I would argue that it's the Mac user that gets a better bang for their buck.

Pricing in NZ is based on a purchase price from Australia not the US. You will see that there is a delta between A$ & US$, this then gets amplified by the fact that we purchase from Australia. We work hard to maintain some degree of price parity with Australia but we do need to take into account shipping cost, service overheads and other costs of managing the New Zealand business.

We do our level best to maintain the price of a product for as long as possible. With small changes in the $NZ v A$ we are able to ride those out given our currency hedging but with significant drops in the $NZ like we are seeing currently we have no choice but to re-price. We have seen close to a 10% drop in value against the A$ over the last 2 months.

The concern with parallel imports is that the customers buying experience is not one that we think is appropriate for the brand. We have a number of complaints from end users that the level of service and expertise is very poor. We don't see the PI folk adding any value to the business unlike our long established AppleCentres and other authorised channel partners. Sure you pay a few dollars more but you can be assured that any potential issues will be dealt with immediately and that the staff are knowledgeable and passionate about the Apple products.

Apple policy globally is wide distribution of the iPod, in Australia they are working with the likes of Target, Big W, JB HiFi, K-Mart, as well as Harvey Norman, David Jones AppleCentres etc.

The Warehouse only have access to the two entry-level iPod products, and we have already seen TV and Press advertising from them raising awareness of the iPod beyond what had already been done. We believe this will create more demand for the product. The Warehouse are investing in the brand, they have already committed a large number of staff to training and this will be on going. The key to selling the iPod is also attaching accessories, both Apple and third party.

I believe a company should be allowed to secure its intellectual property. They also have a responsibility to shareholders to protect that IP. I'm not 100% sure about the current situation in NZ regarding this matter.

Yes we need to do some work on providing up to date case studies. We have a small team of people dedicated to supporting the tertiary sector in New Zealand. Over the past 12 months they have won some significant business including replacing several PC labs with Mac labs. We believe that the transition to Intel processor will enable them to reach many more institutions over the coming months.We have also put together a compelling bundle solution for those students requiring a mobile solution for their studies.

The Apple Education team has a great reputation both here in NZ and through the Apple Education world. The team are known for their innovated and passionate approach to the education market. The bringing together of the various education parts of the business was done to improve the overall offering to the schools and Ministry of Education. I believe that the team themselves have a far stronger reputation than the AED brand and this change will be a very positive one for the end users. There are a large number of schools that the AED team just couldn't crack, now with a wider range of services and offerings, more schools than ever will get to hear the Apple story.

I would just like to thank all Mac users in New Zealand for their continued support of Apple. Please keep upgrading your hardware and you can never have enough iPods!

It's been a tremendous 18 months for Apple globally and I strongly believe that this is only the start. We have strong desire to get the Apple market-share above 5% here in New Zealand. My hope is that we can be one of the first regions in the world to get Apple back above 5%.

Please continue to support the likes of NZMac.com, it is a great community and one that I believe adds true value to all Apple users throughout New Zealand.

And finally a huge thank you to Phil for providing me with this opportunity address some of your questions.