Tekserve

Last updated
Tekserve
Company type Private
Industry Retail
Consulting
PredecessorCurrent Designs
Founded New York City, New York, U.S., 1987 (1987)
FounderRichard Demenus
David Lerner
SuccessorT2 Computing
Headquarters
40°44′36″N73°59′36″W / 40.74333°N 73.99333°W / 40.74333; -73.99333
New York City
,
United States
Area served
 New York metropolitan area
Services Apple sales and service
Number of employees
200 (2014)
Website Official website

Tekserve was an American consumer electronics and information technology consulting business based in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1987 as a side business by Macintosh-using engineers designing computer-controlled institutional electronics, Tekserve grew from a small back-office Macintosh repair shop [1] to become the largest single-location Apple Specialist and Premium Service Provider in the United States. [2]

Contents

The store announced its closure on August 15, 2016, and the location subsequently became home to the Poster House museum. [3] [4]

History

Tekserve founders David Lerner and Dick Demenus met at the New York City public FM radio station WBAI in 1970, and with engineer Mike Edl set up shop together late in the decade under the name Current Designs Corporation. [1] Their business was electronic engineering and industrial design. They manufactured the indestructible music listening stations to be found at the Lincoln Center branch of the New York Public Library, [5] and early models of the audio listening tours now found in many art museums. [6] [7]

Tekserve was formed as a "sister company under the same roof" [8] dedicated to servicing Macintosh computers and became Apple-authorized for repair in 1993. [9] [10] Tekserve occupied four locations on the same side of the same block in Chelsea: a 3,000-foot (910 m) loft at 115 West 23rd Street; [1] another loft at 163 West 23rd Street (the "Traffic Building"); a larger space on the fourth floor of 155 West 23rd Street, and later expansions to the third floor. In June 2002, the company moved to a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) storefront location at 119 West 23rd Street, occupying the entire first floor of the Printing Arts Building (which extends through to 24th street). [11] [12] The first three locations were notable for their eccentric decor, including an antique ten-cent Coke machine, and a porch swing.

In 2014, Tekserve birthed a business-to-business enterprise, T2 Computing, based on core competencies and experiences, which continues to operate. [13] T2 became part of Axispoint in 2017, the latter acquiring the right to the Tekserve brand name. [14]

On June 29, 2016, the New York Times reported the retail store and service center would close, while certain elements of the business remained open. It ultimately closed a few weeks before the end of its lease due to changes in shopping habits, the presence of multiple Apple stores and increased rent. [15] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Inc.</span> American multinational technology company

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Apple's product lineup includes the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and Apple TV; as well as software like iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS; and services like Apple Card, Apple Pay, iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple TV+.

macOS Operating system for Apple computers

macOS, originally Mac OS X, previously shortened as OS X, is an operating system developed and marketed by Apple since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and laptop computers, it is the second most widely used desktop OS, after Microsoft Windows and ahead of all Linux distributions, including ChromeOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Wozniak</span> American electrical engineer and programmer (born 1950)

Stephen Wozniak, also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Computer with his early business partner Steve Jobs. Through his work at Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, he is widely recognized as one of the most prominent pioneers of the personal computer revolution.

Macworld/iWorld was an information technology trade show with conference tracks dedicated to Apple's Mac platform. It was held annually in the United States during January. Originally Macworld Expo and then Macworld Conference & Exposition, the gathering dates back to 1985. The conference was organized by International Data Group (IDG), co-publisher of Macworld magazine.

Power Computing Corporation was the first company selected by Apple Inc to create Macintosh-compatible computers. Stephen “Steve” Kahng, a computer engineer best known for his design of the Leading Edge Model D, founded the company in November 1993. Power Computing started out with financial backing from Olivetti and Kahng.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Best Buy</span> American multinational consumer electronics retailer

Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebranded under its current name with an emphasis on consumer electronics in 1983.

The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell, service and repair various Apple products, including Mac desktop and MacBook laptop personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple TV digital media players, software, and both Apple-branded and selected third-party accessories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macintosh 128K</span> Original Macintosh Computer introduced by Apple Computer in 1984

The Macintosh, later rebranded as the Macintosh 128K, is the original Macintosh personal computer from Apple. It is the first successful mass-market all-in-one desktop personal computer with a graphical user interface, built-in screen and mouse. It was pivotal in establishing desktop publishing as a general office function. The motherboard, a 9 in (23 cm) CRT monochrome monitor, and a floppy drive are in a beige case with integrated carrying handle; it has a keyboard and single-button mouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Wayne</span> American businessperson and co-founder of Apple Inc.

Ronald Gerald Wayne is an American retired electronics industry business executive. He co-founded Apple Computer Company as a partnership with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs on April 1, 1976, providing administrative oversight and documentation for the new venture. Twelve days later, he sold his 10% share of the new company back to Jobs and Wozniak for US$800, and one year later accepted a final $1,500 to forfeit any potential future claims against the newly incorporated Apple.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macintosh clone</span> Computer running Mac OS not produced by Apple

A Macintosh clone is a computer running the Mac OS operating system that was not produced by Apple Inc. The earliest Mac clones were based on emulators and reverse-engineered Macintosh ROMs. During Apple's short lived Mac OS 7 licensing program, authorized Mac clone makers were able to either purchase 100% compatible motherboards or build their own hardware using licensed Mac reference designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Apple Inc.</span> American multinational consumer electronics and computer corporation

Apple Inc., originally Apple Computer, Inc., is a multinational corporation that creates and markets consumer electronics and attendant computer software, and is a digital distributor of media content. Apple's core product lines are the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet computer, and the Macintosh personal computer. The company offers its products online and has a chain of retail stores known as Apple Stores. Founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne created Apple Computer Co. on April 1, 1976, to market Wozniak's Apple I desktop computer, and Jobs and Wozniak incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Jobs</span> American businessman and inventor (1955–2011)

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B&H Photo</span> Photo and video equipment store in New York City

B&H Photo Video is an American photo and video equipment retailer founded in 1973, based in Manhattan, New York City. B&H conducts business primarily through online e-commerce consumer sales and business to business sales, as they only have one retail location. While initially a photo and film shop, B&H has grown into one of the largest electronic retailers in the U.S., selling over 400,000 products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkeley Macintosh Users Group</span> Largest Macintosh users group, active 1984-2000

The Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, or more commonly "BMUG", was the largest Macintosh User Group. It was founded in September 1984 by a group of UC Berkeley students including Reese Jones and Raines Cohen as a focal-point for the nascent Apple Macintosh user community. With more than 13,000 members, or "BMUGgers" at its peak in 1993, the group was the largest, and generally understood to be the most important, Macintosh users group. A few of the notable members include John "Captain Crunch" Draper, the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, notorious murderer Enrique Zambrano, early hacker-chaser Cliff Stoll, Inktomi founder Eric Brewer, and may prominent computing journalists like John Dvorak, Ilene Hoffman, Leo Laporte and Adam Engst. An example of the group's omnipresent blue-floppy-disk lapel pin is held in the Smithsonian Institution's American History collection. BMUG's history and activities were closely linked with the MacWorld Expo meetings, traditionally held in San Francisco each January and Boston each August.

ComputerWare: The MacSource was a chain of ten Macintosh-only retail stores in the greater San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California founded by Karim Khashoggi and Drew Munster. At one time, they were the largest Macintosh-only reseller in the United States. Guy Kawasaki mentions ComputerWare a number of times in his book, The Macintosh Way. Besides the ten stores, ComputerWare also had a headquarters that held international, direct, and corporate sales departments, and at one time had a full hardware repair depot and various training centers on the Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mac (computer)</span> Family of personal computers made by Apple

Mac, short for Macintosh, is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple. The name Macintosh is a reference to a type of apple called McIntosh. The product lineup includes the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, and the iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro desktops. Macs are sold with the macOS operating system.

Haddock Corporation is an American consumer electronics and information technology consulting business based in Wichita, Kansas, which operated four Haddock Computer Center retail locations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Founded as a software company, Haddock has been an Apple-authorized dealer and computer repair shop since 1984, the year the Macintosh computer was released. Company founder and CEO Richard Haddock served on Apple's reseller advisory board for over ten years. He is a member and one of the founders of the Apple Specialist Marketing Corporation.

The following outline of Apple Inc. is a topical guide to the products, history, retail stores, corporate acquisitions, and personnel under the purview of the American multinational corporation:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple T2</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

The Apple T2 security chip is a system on a chip "SoC" tasked with providing security and controller features to Apple's Intel based Macintosh computers. It is a 64-bit ARMv8 chip and runs bridgeOS. T2 has its own RAM and is essentially a computer of its own, running in parallel to and responding to requests by the main computer that the user interacts with.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kadetsky, Elizabeth (September 1992). "Low-tech computer lab - Current Designs and Tekserve in New York City". Home Office Computing. FindArticles.com. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  2. ↑ "Computers and Electronics". Mayor's Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting. City of New York. Archived from the original on September 18, 2009. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  3. ↑ Marcus, Lilit (25 September 2017). "A peek inside New York's Poster House museum". CNN. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  4. 1 2 Rojas, Rick (June 29, 2016). “Tekserve, Precursor to the Apple Store, to Close After 29 Years” “The New York Times” (The New York Times Company). N.Y. / Region. Retrieved June 29, 2016
  5. ↑ Nelson, Nancy Melin (September 1, 1989). "Current Designs: Macintosh-controlled audio stations". Computers in Libraries. encyclopedia.com. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  6. ↑ Mantilla, Olga (September 7, 2005). "Tekserve are the Mac daddies for all things Apple". The Villager. 75 (16). New York City: Community Media LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  7. ↑ Li, Kenneth (3 August 1997). "They Don't Stew, They Fix". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  8. ↑ Contrucci, Lance (November 18, 1991). "Comfy Computers". New York Magazine. 24 (45). New York City: New York Media LLC: 30. ISSN   0028-7369 . Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  9. ↑ Mulcahy, Conrad (21 March 2006). "The Errors Are Fatal, but Maybe There's Hope". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  10. ↑ Dana, Rebecca (March 13, 2005). "Revenge of the Apple Nerds". The New York Observer . The New York Observer LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  11. ↑ Cohen, Peter (June 3, 2002). "Tekserve moves to new NYC location tomorrow". Macworld.com. Mac Publishing. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  12. ↑ Bernstein, Fred (June 20, 2002). "A Shop Where Fun Meets Function". The New York Times . pp. G6. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  13. ↑ "T2 Computing". tekserve.com. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  14. ↑ Novinson, Michael (11 January 2017). "Tekserve Lives Again: Axispoint Buys Legendary Apple Reseller Brand, B2B Subsidiary". CRN. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  15. ↑ Rajamani, Maya (30 June 2016). "Tekserve to Close After Nearly Three Decades in Chelsea". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  16. ↑ "$50,000 worth of Apple iPods topple like dominoes in Tekserve ad". MacDailyNews. MacDailyNews.com. April 26, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  17. ↑ Scheier, Rachel (June 18, 2001). "Repair shop is place to be for ailing PCs". New York Daily News . pp.  28, 29 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "Sex and the City, My Motherboard, Myself (2001)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
  19. ↑ Shopsin, Tamara (October 19, 2021). LaserWriter II. New York: MCD. ISBN   978-0374602574.
  20. ↑ Kalish, Jon (August 31, 2016). "Saying Farewell to Tekserve and Paying Big Bucks for Tech History". PC Mag. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  21. ↑ Haslam, Oliver (18 May 2021). "MacPaw is opening its own Apple museum in Kyiv, Ukraine". iMore. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  22. ↑ Ichikawa, Akiko (26 July 2016). "New Media Artists Mourn Tekserve, a Tech Oasis in New York". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  23. ↑ Kahney, Leander; Pierini, David (17 December 2019). The Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition. No Starch Press. ISBN   978-1-59327-915-8 . Retrieved 5 July 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.