Apple permanently closes three retail store locations

Welcome to ninety five Mack Daily for Monday, june twenty second, twenty twenty six. I'm your host, Chance Miller We are sponsored this week by Roboock Leading off today, we talked last week about Tim Cookke's comments that price increases are coming soon for Apple products. Cook didn't get specific about which products will see those increases or how much the increases will be. New estimates from the Wall Street Journal say the iPhone eighteen Pro could start as high as one thousand three hundred and ninety nine dollars. through internal analysis and pricing insights from research firm tech insights The Wall Street Journal says the device could start at a minimum price of twelve dollarsyine cents But thirteenars ninety nine or even higher is more likely The Wall Street Journal's numbers were reached by adding up the expected price hikes for iPhone eighteen P's RAM and storage, plus camera upgrades and giving Apple comparable margins to its norms. Research from tech Insights suggests the margin on the base model ten ninety nine iPhone seventeen Pro is around forty seven percent to maintain that profit margin for the iPhone eighteen Pro. based on those estimated component costs People would need to charge one thousand three hundred and seventy one dollars. If the iPhone eighteen Pro does start at twelve do ninety nine cents or thirteen ninety nine cents We can expect the iPhone eighteen P Max to start at least one hundred dollars more than that Then of course, Apple's most expensive iPhone this year is expected to be the foldable iPhone Ultra which is rumored to start at at least two thousand dollars There's still no word on what sort of price increases we expect for other Apple products, including the Mac But it seems that these price increases are coming sooner rather than later. and will likely affect most of Apple's product categories Next up today, Bloomberg's Mark Germman is out with a new edition of his newsletter recapping the last ten years of Apple's corporate structure with a particular focus on how the influence of Apple's design team lessened in the Tim Cook era Germman reports, however, based on what he's been told from sources inside Apple Ucoming CEO John Turnis is about to reset that relationship and reaffirm the importance of the design group for the company's future After Johnny Ive left the company, oversight of Apple's design team fell to then Chief operating offfficer Jeff Williams This was already a major shakeup from the prior regime, where Ives industrial Design Group dictated the product roadmap of Apple from top down In fact, in twenty eleven, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying that Johnny Ive had more operational power than anyone at Apple apart from himself, because that's how he decided to set it up But now as Apple prepares for the transition from the Cook era to the Turnus era, The expectation is that Turnus is going to be more involved in product in general than Cook was. Part of that is looking to restore some of the authority and power of the design team Germman says that Turnnus has already spent a considerable amount of time with Apple's Industrial design Group as he prepares for succession to begin on september first Turnnis is quoted by German as having said, quote The most beautifully designed thing that most customers own is an Apple product, and we're going to make sure that stays the case. End quote We are sponsored this week by Robaock. If you're looking to upgrade your cleaning routine for Pime dayay, now is a great time Roborock is offering limited time deals across its lineup of robot vacuums and wet dry vacuums with savings of up to fif thousand five hundred dollars That includes Roborock's popular Sorrows tenX R at its lowest price yet as well as its latest Q Revo Edge two models There are also budget friendly options, starting at just two hundred and fifty dollars To learn more and take advantage of these Prime D day deals from Marbarok, hit the link in the show notes Thanks to Roboock for sponsoring ninetiney five Mac Daily Riting out today, Apple has permanently closed three stores in the United States after first announcing these closures back in April The three Apple store locations affected include Apple Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland ple North County in Escondido, California Bull Trumble in Trble, Connecticut All three of these stores officially closed at the end of business on Saturday In a statement to ninetiney to five Mac, Apple attributed the closures to the departures of several retailers and declining conditions at the malls in which these stores are located Apple said, quote, We are constantly striving to deliver exceptional service and great experiences for our customers as we continue investing to expand and enhance our retail stores and offerings worldwide We remain deliberate about evaluating our existing locations to ensure that we can meet our customers' needs in the best way For example, Trumble Mall recently defaulted on over one hundred fifty million dollars in loans as it faces ongoing struggles and business departures. Tson Town Center just outside of Baltimore has lost multiple businesses so far this year including Tommy Bahama, Banana Republic, and Madewell In April, Apple said that employees at the Trumble and Escondndito stores will be able to continue their roles at nearby Apple locations Apple Tous and Town Center, however, was the first Apple Store location in the United States to unionize in June of twenty twenty two Apple says that employees from Toussentown Center are able to apply for open roles at Apple in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. 's decision to close the store has been met with harsh criticism from the Union itself as well as lawmakers in Maryland and the broader United States Apple has been criticized for offering the Trumble and Escondido store employees automatic transfer to nearby Apple stores while not offering that to Tson Town Center employees Pople, however, has pointed to the union agreement as the reason for this The union agreement, according to Apples, says that in the event of a store closure Apple must offer transfers within fifty miles of the location if and only if it opens a new store within fifty miles of that location As of right now, Apple has no plans to open a new store within a fifty mile radius of Touseson, Maryland. It does already operate other stores within that radius, but the agreement specifically says only if it opens a new store. Again, all three of these stores have officially closed as of Saturday evening Apple has updated its website redirecting customers to other nearby locations W's up another episode of Night to five Mac Daily As always, you can find all of the latest Apple news on nine to fiveMac. com Follow along with me on threads at Chance H. Miller And we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of Nine to five Mac Daily