Former Apple Senior Vice President of Retail (then ousted JCPenney CEO) Ron Johnson made a somewhat rare public-facing appearance on Andreessen Horowitz’s podcast. The discussion comes in at just under half an hour and features the former head of Apple Retail discussing his experience with leading the Apple Store as well as the challenge for up-and-coming startup brands to afford brick-and-mortar retail channels, but more interesting from an Apple perspective is Johnson’s praise for Microsoft’s retail stores and the Surface 3 tablet that the company heavily markets against Apple’s MacBook Air.
The former Apple Retail SVP went on to say that comparing Microsoft’s retail stores with Apple’s own retail presence is like comparing two different restaurants by the crowd alone.
Aside from offering kudos to Microsoft’s retail approach and iPad/MacBook Air competitor, Johnson did talk about the challenge startup brands face with expensive retail channels and getting products in front of customers.
Johnson related this back to Apple’s own experience in retail describing Apple’s challenge with 3% marketshare at a time when no one could try products. Johnson added that Apple hasn’t had a bad product launch since Apple’s retail presence started due to the hands-on experience retail stores create. The conversation didn’t go without hinting at the upcoming iPhone 6 event:
Ron Johnson, of course, was tapped to run the Apple Retail Store chain when it debuted in 2001 until 2011 when he announced his retirement from Apple to take the CEO role at retailer JCPenney. Johnson was eventually replaced by John Browett, who had a short run at Apple. Then Johnson himself had a relatively short run at the clothing retailer being fired after Browett. Johnson, of course, did not return to Apple, though, as Angela Ahrendts left her role as CEO of Burberry to take the reigns.
As for Ron Johnson’s appearance on a16z’s podcast, you can catch the full interview here.
