Future AppleCenter Policies: Apple Premium Reseller

Last Friday, our friends fromMacgénération learned that Pascal Cagni, Vice President and General Manager Apple Europe, had sent an e-mail to all Apple Centers, in which he described future changes in Apple policies regarding the Apple Reseller network.
We have obtained a copy of this e-mail from different sources and we have also learned that it has "driven many AppleCenter managers into madness".
In summary, Apple announced in this e-mail the introduction of a new program named "Apple Premium Reseller". This program will replace the previous 17 year old program which assigned the name of "AppleCenter" to official Apple Resellers.
Without going into details, there are not too many changes. Among the more significant changes are::
- it will be required for the AppleCenter wishing to apply to the new program to be located in a mall or a commercially active area with a high traffic of potential customers. It will no longer be allowed to be located in a quiet street or low traffic area anymore...
- it is no longer required to have an "Apple Store" design.
This is quite a change, because we know that Apple has been pressing all AppleCenters to get them to renovate their shops into a more uniform "Apple design". We think that the future opening of Apple Stores in France and in Europe could be the reason for such a change as Apple would not like to have AppleCenters mixed up with their Apple Stores.
Additionally, the future Apple "Premium Reseller" will not have the right to associate their name with "APPLE". Only the use of the Apple logo will be allowed.
This is the logo of the future Apple "Premium Reseller" program:

The program will start on October 30th, the deadline date for current AppleCenters to adapt the new rules or to close down.
PS: Do not get it wrong, we are happy to see future physical Apple Stores to be finally opened in Europe, including France, but we also think that Apple is (on purpose or not) destroying the AppleCenter network that has supported Cupertino and Mac users during the difficult years, and seems to be not really rewarded for this work by Apple when prosperous years are back.
JCJ