Apple.com

This review is for www.apple.com/uk.

Who Are Apple?

It is a question people will most likely know already but they are a brand who continues to grow each year bringing out amazing products we all wish we could own.
The Iphone, Ipod and soon the Ipad are all inventions by this company and they are still managing to develop new ideas for each and bring them into the market for us all to purchase.

They have the unique apple logo which has gone from a multi-coloured apple to a golden one and sometimes just a boring black symbol.
They are rumoured to make over 40 billion pounds a year in profit which shows you how good the company truly are.

The Website

When you first visit the website you are presented a huge picture of the Ipad currently which is the latest gadget they have created due out in May this year. They have two separate pictures which sort of show us the side angle and the front view.
This does change from time to time and usually to a new product they have coming out soon. Throughout the website people will notice how many areas there are to visit and how many products are in your face within seconds.

At the top of the screen people need to use the various tabs to take them to different destinations within the website and see how it goes for them. They have got various places for people to visit, so if you want to purchase an item they have the store and if you want to venture around the products they offer people you click on the product tab at the top of the screen and see how many items they have got.

If you want downloads and support these items are also present as well and the biggest problem instantly is the amount of things going on the other pages of the website and this will become apparent as I continue this review.

Store

This is one of the tabs they have got at the top of the screen on the website. The store is obviously the place to go to purchase items and it has many to choose from plus many other things as well people might not have considered.

The store page is perhaps the one page which can make people really irritated because of the amount of items they have got all over the page. There is no sort of folders or other menus to click on they have everything on display on this one page.
At the top of the main page on this tab setting they have all the biggest products they sell with prices underneath them to give people an idea of the prices they are expecting you to pay for these products.

On the right hand side they have various types of headings for the products they sell and you can click on this if you wish and yet it is the same products they have pictured at the top of the screen with prices on.
On the left hand side they have got various other options and these are accessories and games for people to purchase and look through so you can click on them if you wish.

As you go further down this rather huge page there are other items from best sellers on the right hand side to more accessories and cables for the various items on the left hand side.
The entire page is dedicated to giving people various options on the products they have got and that for me is good but they could have arranged this site much more efficiently.

ITunes

ITunes tab is the one I use the most often because this page will feature all the latest top songs, albums and even new music releases.
You can click on any of the choices and it will bring up all the information regarding the price of the song and sometimes they even play a slight hint of the song to get an idea of what you are buying.

You have many other choices on there as well such as downloading ITunes which is the application you use on the computer and this sends files to your various items and this is free as well to download.

There are stores on there for TV programmes, movies and even applications as well and these are full of items and they tell you prices throughout so there is no confusion. They usually provide many screenshots of the product as well to give you an idea of how the application might look which helps as well.

When you click on these various topics they bring up new screens to help you find what you’re after. If you are after TV programmes you can search for dramas (As an example) and they bring up the various programmes you can download and yet I find them to pretty expensive overall.

You then have got the applications which for me are the best part to the site as you can scroll through various types of applications and some are free and some are not and if you click on them they tell you plenty of information about the product and even the rating they currently have got.

You have also got other parts to this page such as the free engraving of the item you have brought and you have gift cards you might like to buy people so they can use them to buy products of the website for their various items.
I have found the site for this area very useful but just needs perhaps to sort out the layout of the site slightly more to assist people when they visit.

Downloads

Downloads is the area to find all the latest updates for your items and free applications to download for your computer.

They have ITunes and Safari the web browser but they have other items as well which might be useful for many people. If you like viewing movie trailers they are free to watch using this page and it takes you too many trailers to watch which is useful because I love watching trailers so I spend a long time on this page every day hoping new trailers for the latest films crop up.

They have other items on the left hand side of this page which display other types of downloads they have got and some are going to be useful for people to read and download and others might not be so much.
There are demo’s on this page for people to download and they have got even more applications for people to look at which is just the same as on other pages of the site.

The downloads page is useful to me because it is not overcrowded at all and all items tell you exactly what they are and you can download most of them for free and they can be very handy indeed.

Support

When I first got my Ipod Touch I needed some assistance because to be fair I am not the cleverest of people with new gadgets. I found this support page extremely useful.
If you have the products provided by apple all the guides you need are on this page. They had a user manual for my item and it helped me learn new ways of using the device and how to do new things I never knew I could.

They tell you everything you might need help with in regards to downloads and playing games to redeeming gift vouchers and sending emails. You get all the help you would want on one page and to me this is a very good idea on the part of Apple.

If you need any help in terms of discussing matters with Apple directly there are various contact links scattered around the website and they usually reply within a few days and sometimes the website brings up all the latest top questions and you could search through them to assess if they are going to help you or not.

This is a great page and extremely helpful to people so in my view a big thumbs up for this part of the website.

If you email the website they usually reply within 24 hours and if it is something really technical they tend to email you and say that within a few days a technician will reply and they usually do with a solution to an issue you have got.

Buying

I have to say this is a good part to the website and it is the speed on which items arrive to you and not only that it is how they keep you updated with where the product is all the way.

I ordered a few items for friends before Christmas and I found that when I put the order in I received an email to tell me I had made a purchase and the price but there was a link to keep an eye on the status throughout.

I was told where the item was and also when it would arrive, it told me the order would be with me within a few days and it took just 24 hours and it came very well packaged, so much so infact it took 20 minutes to get the parcel open and it had order numbers inside and even a free ITunes card to the value of £20 just because I made so many purchases all at once.

I think the other part to the buying has to be if you’re comfortable with the price of the items and I have to say the website very rarely reduces the price of the items they sell so you have to be careful not to over spend so I would also suggest to people that they go ahead and visit other websites first.

Good Points

I think the overall help on the support section is superb, I cannot fault them at all for this and I would say it is some of the best assistances I have ever had. If you need manuals on various items they have them and this could be essential for helping people. Sometimes I lose the manuals I have provided with various items and perhaps that is a part of me I need to improve but with the knowledge the website has all those manuals there to look at I do not feel so bad anymore.

I like the fact they have everything you would want to look at and purchase. Ranging from cables and cases to the applications and music and this for me shows how good the website is and it is helpful for when you need to find out more about items. All items have got great ranges of descriptions and some reviews also so it gives you an idea of how the item truly works.

I think the downloads is a good idea also with the trailers for movies to look at but updates and other downloads to assist people with the Apple products and these being all under the one tab makes the website extremely helpful to use.

I think the way they keep in contact with customers over where there orders are exceptionally good and well worth the wait. You do not have to wait too long for products and when you can keep a close eye on every single item and where it is then you know you’re onto a winner.

I like the fact they are forever updating the website with new content and downloads all the time so it gives me an indication of how much effort people who run the site put behind making it totally up-to-date all the time.

I also like the range of products they have for each item such as the cables and cases and stylus pens and all these items can prove to be extremely helpful to people and you can see new items you might not have seen before.

Bad Points

The worst part to me is the store tab because this is so over the top with banners and various sections and I just wish they would focus on tidying up the website quite a bit. They could easily put various topics and ideas into folders for people to click on to which would tidy up the main page but sadly they never do.

I think that the prices of some of the items they do sell are over the top and they do that because if someone does buy items off them at full price they have got a nice amount of money for the item, you should go to retail stores in local towns first as this would be the most helpful.

Summary

Apple are a huge company and they do have a very easy to understand website even though a few pages could do with some help in organisation.

You have plenty of support, downloads and items to download but you have to be careful of the prices they ask people to pay for some of the products.
A decent enough website overall and it could be one which improves over time, one would hope in some areas.