As reported on TechCrunch.
by MATTHEW PANZARINO
Apple is now requiring that all users booking a Genius Bar appointment online sign in with an Apple ID. Previously, users could instead fill out a form with name, address and email in order to book an appointment.
When you visit Apple’s online Genius Bar appointment page now, you’ll be prompted to enter your Apple ID and password in order to confirm it. The reasons for this are manifold but there is an ongoing effort to tie in a user’s Apple ID with all of their actions in Apple’s ecosystem.
This new procedure is in place for Genius Bar and Workshop appointments and there is now a profile page that allows you to see all of your appointments past and present.
The Apple ID is quickly becoming a core piece of Apple’s purchasing experience inside and out of the Apple Retail Stores. Yesterday, Apple introduced the Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S, which can act as an Apple ID in order to make purchases on the iTunes Store, for instance.
An additional reason for this change, we understand, is to give the control of a Genius Bar appointment to a user directly, who must know their credentials and enter them before being able to confirm a payment. There is also the convenience of having a customer’s data automatically filled out with a simple entry of the Apple ID. This could allow Geniuses to look past purchases and communicate with the user much easier now as well.
There’s also an outside chance — likely a small one — that having someone sign in with an Apple ID might make them more reluctant to drop an appointment than if they entered info casually, reducing no-shows at the bar. Apple customers can currently make Genius Bar appointments online on Apple’s site or in the Apple Store app.
Update: As commenter Lukas Thomas points out below, this would also theoretically prevent scalping issues like the ones that were reported sporadically in China.