Apple has everything to gain with Best Buy partnership

With the hotter-than-hot consumer electronics company Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)joining forces with the largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S., is the picture going to be all roses? Most likely, it will. As Georges wrote on a day ago, Apple products are about to explode inside Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) stores across the U.S., as the iPod maker will be opening miniature versions of its successful Apple stores inside the big box retailer. IN 1998, Best Buy abandoned Apple based on low demand and low profits. But, times have changed drastically since then.

Apple is a hot commodity right now, as its consumer electronics products and even its Mac PCs and laptops being the envy of all the markets where they compete. With the style and panache Apple products have right now, it's easy to see that many retailers want to join up with the Cupertino, California company.

Some think that Apple's brand will be diluted be entering into too many mass merchants, but the company knows this. A "mini Apple store" inside a mass merchant that has foot traffic numbers any retailer would crave and most likely cannot go wrong.

Is this bad news for Dell(NASDAQ:DELL)? Sure it is. Best Buy's largest PC movers are Hewlett-Packard(NYSE:HPQ) and Gateway (NYSE:GTW) systems. Add Apple into that mix and Dell becomes even more irrelevant in the age where customers are bored buying systems online and want to have the "touch and feel" experience of retail along with excellent design. Newer HP systems have been designed very well and there's no question about Apple's styling. What will Ron Garriques do to combat that? We're waiting.