In response to people coming into their stores and using the computer displays for customers as their personal computer, Apple (AAPL) has blocked access to MySpace (NWS-A).
Evidently customers would use the Webcam on the provided Macs and take a picture and upload it to their MySpace profile. From there they would use the computer for hours, while customers that were interested in testing it for a potential purchase couldn't access the provided test computers.
Apple released a statement Friday saying, "We want to provide everyone a chance to test-drive a Mac, so we are no longer offering access to MySpace in our stores."
This is especially a problem at the best stores of the company, as the high volume of traffic in the stores magnifies the situation.
I've wondered for some time if something like this would start to emerge; not only with Apple but with other businesses as well.
For example, I saw a story of a man that was sitting in a Starbucks (SBUX) with food from a competitor of the store. When asked why he was there, he said he liked the atmosphere of Starbucks better than he did the place where he got the food. The problem was he was taking seating away from the real customers of the store.
Last I heard, Starbucks has addressed the problem by allowing only people buying products from them to be seated in the store.
I think we'll start to see more of these types of responses from companies as certain types of people think they can use store space as their own personal hangout, without consideration for the success of the business itself.
What the underlying issue will be, whether online or off, is who are our customers. People just taking up space at our businesses aren't customers, and I think that's what Apple, Starbucks and many others will have to deal with for some time to come.
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