Confirmed: Apple Retiring 'One to One' to Focus on Free Workshops [Updated]

It makes sense. One-on-one training is much more costly, and if they can answer any pertinent questions in group training, it's a lot more cost-effective use of retail employees' time.

Apple Retail wasn't built on cost effective. You don't line your stores with stainless steel sheet and source stone from one Italian quarry to be cost effective. It was built on user experience and the ideal of taking an iPod purchaser and turning them into a promotor of the company and its ideals. It was welcoming, inclusive and did more to overcome the notion that Apple products were over-priced, hipster, elitists toys than any advertising campaign could have ever done (which is were the value showed on the P&L sheet).
Now it is going the other way. $17,000 for an accessory that will be outdated in a year and official classified as "obsolete" by Apple in 5 years, oh and you have to have an appointment to buy one. Apple was about approachable technology for the people. Computers that let you work on your hobbies without forcing you to make computers your hobby. Not the cheapest, but the best user experience for the price. A $20 MP3 player? Nope. But a $499 MP3 player that was better than any $1,000 player on the market. It was uncompromising in terms of what a user got, without being snooty about it. It was built to do something great. What people did was what was important and One To One got people doing things. It was money, labor and effort that was well spent. Sad to see it go.

Mullet sighting

Nobody tell my grandpa. This is his life.

Man these employees have it easy today. ::Old man voice:: Back in my day, I had to sell MobileMe and OnetoOne and we got bitched at constantly on why mobile me numbers were so low........BECAUSE IT SUCKED AND WE ALL KNEW IT! Even Steve knew it and fired some people on the spot.

While I've never signed up for this it has to be said that many of the group sessions I've taken have been a complete waste, and 99% of the time it has come down to one or two participants who are dumb as stone and therefore wind up hogging most of the time dealing with really simple stuff. This strikes me as yet another example of Apple's now relentless cost cutting.

Dude, the only people that used this service were people who knew nothing in the first place. YouTube will tell you more in 5 minutes than that $99 will get you in an hour.

I was coming from 20+ years of DOS/Windows and it was a great help to me when I got my first Mac. I've been to those group sessions and they were no help because you had to teach at the lowest possible level. The One on One were a big help to me because I could ask stuff on a more accelerated level.