Springboard Media opens new store in Exton

If you see dozens of renegade balloons floating high above the region this weekend, blame Springboard Media.

The Center City-based independent Apple retail and repair specialist is celebrating a grand opening of a sister store in Exton and President Everett Katzen has spent the last few days orchestrating final touches.
“I just bought out all the purple balloons at Party City,” Katzen exclaimed during a phone interview on Wednesday.
Thirty-five year old Katzen has operated the store since 1996 and the Exton opening marks the company’s first expansion. The retailer has graduated to a 3,600 square feet space, about a thousand more than at its digs on the 2200 block of Walnut Street.
It has a much more retail feel to it, Katzen says, with a wide showroom, brand new hardwood floors and private training rooms.
Though Apple doesn’t have a retail presence in Center City, as we’ve reported in the past, Springboard may have to compete with the manufacturer’s official locations in the suburbs, one in King of Prussia and a second in Ardmore. Katzen points out that his Exton location still meets the needs of an underserved market. It’s a half-hour away from any Apple retailer – including his own.
“We don’t ever think we’re competing with Apple,” Katzen says. “We do a ton of stuff they don’t do.” Springboard does hardware trade-ins and focuses on training, he says, in addition to retail offerings from Apple and other related manufacturers.
It’s as much about offerings as it is aesthetics, it seems. “We’re going to be the prettiest Apple specialist,” he says.