According to reliable sources , a Apple Brazil has worked hard to align its retail with operations in other countries, but the good old Brazilian bureaucracy is holding back Appleās plans.
That are not few. See s:
Payment terminals
Anyone who has visited Apple VillageMall or Apple Morumbi currently the only two official physical stores that we have in Brazil, must have noticed that they have boxes at the bottom of the establishment. This is a very common practice in the Brazilian retail market, something that is not true in several other countries including the United States. But that should be over soon.
Since the beginning of this week, Apple Brazil has replaced mobile payment terminals; if employees previously used a fourth generation iPod touch, now they are all equipped with iPhones 6. To give you an idea, only China besides Brazil is making this switch, for now; stores in the U.S. use iPhones 5s for these purposes.
iPhone 5s used as payment terminal by Apple in the USA
Cash payments will still be made at the back of the stores, but that should also change until the middle of this year, the delay is due to the fact that it is necessary to change the furniture, which is still a small work.
Gift Cards
Apple Brasil is also working, from what we hear, on three other important implementations for the national market: the first one would be the Gift Cards (gift cards).
According to our sources, Apple Brazil intends to launch Apple Store gift cards first, those that are used to purchase products sold in stores (both physical and online); in a second moment, the desired iTunes gift cards will land here.
The delay for this to happen would be justified: the good old Brazilian tax (apparently the government wanted to tax these gift cards twice, once for Apple and once when the company markets them to the customer).
Personal Pickup
O Personal Pickup, for those who do not know, nothing more than the possibility of you to buy a product online and pick it up in one of the companyās stores. Usually the products purchased (when in stock) are available to be picked up one hour after purchase and you can even indicate someone else to pick you up. Undoubtedly something that makes things easier for many people, especially in times of product launches.
Our sources reported that this is an implementation desired by Apple, but that it is facing ?obstacles? (apparently also related to tax, since online sales are taxed differently than physical sales); initially it was expected in 2017, but the company is already accepting the fact that it will not happen so soon. A feather.
iPhone Upgrade Program
O iPhone Upgrade Program was launched by Apple in 2015 with the aim of making things easier for users who change their iPhone every year. You pay a monthly fee (24 installments) that varies according to the chosen device. In the program, the consumer chooses his preferred operator and receives an unlocked device, already with AppleCare + included. In Brazil, the most similar to that we have Claro up (which, obviously, is linked to an operator plan).
Also according to our sources, the iPhone Upgrade Program was even promised by Apple Brazil in an internal video of the global board released in 2016, but, like the Personal Pickup, it is not as close as imagined and should not be launched in fiscal year 2017 (which runs until September).
The reason, of course, is also bureaucratic: the program, as explained above, directly linked to AppleCare +. Under Brazilian law, any ?extended? guarantee (different from the standard guarantee given to all consumers) must be made through an insurer. This impasse that would be holding the arrival of AppleCare + in Brazil and, consequently, the iPhone Upgrade Program.
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Apple has never been a fast company, which manages to expand its services and distribution globally at incredible speed. And the problem becomes even greater when the bureaucracy of certain governments, like ours, does not help.
The really gets complicated
