Apple Store Success Rankles Some Resellers

But the problem for Apple is that its resellers still are an important component of its business. In areas where the company has no storefronts, they are the company's emissaries. And even in areas where they do have stores, they can tap into business, institutional and educational customers that aren't visiting Apple's stores.

"They do a good job of increasing that footprint of Apple around the world," says Crawford Del Prete, an analyst with IDC, an industry consulting firm.

The question is whether the resellers competing in the same market with Apple's stores can survive on niche markets not served by those stores, and whether resellers in other areas will face similar competition in the near future.

"America is becoming homogenized," says Deal. "Whether its Wal-Mart or Apple stores, the days of independent business owners are numbered and becoming more challenging."

Apple isn't the first manufacturer to face the issue of channel conflict. Compaq, for instance, saw an outcry from its resellers in the 1990s when it proposed to sell its computers directly to customers.

Other technology and nontechnology companies, from Sony to Nike, have faced similar issues.

Some analysts believe the company will learn from these predecessors. Even if Apple's stores hurt some of its resellers, some analysts think Apple will do what it can to nurture its overall reseller network.

And some argue that instead of being hurt by the stores, some resellers are actually benefiting from them in that they help promote Apple's products to customers who are considering the Mac platform and allow consumers to test them.

"These kinds of relationships are always tense," says Del Prete, "but I don't see a strategy that suggests that Apple is going to move to go direct at the expense of its small independent resellers. I think they serve different functions."