95% of my job as a Specialist was spent talking about Windows vs OS X, or explaining how to make playlists in iTunes, or how to quickly edit photos in iPhoto etc etc. It's all very well asking about Xcode, but in all honesty who else is going to come in and ask that? The ideal Specialist is someone who is friendly and approachable, and can explain relatively-technical concepts into things that the average consumer can understand.
Exactly. Knowing is all well and good but it takes a certain type of person to be able to put that across to a customer without scaring or boring them.
It might seem lightweight to the OP, but it's a sales position. Most of the customers are new to Macs, so they don't care about most of the technical gubbins. Some do, most don't.
Cliché, but people *do* buy people.
There's plenty of knowledge in Apple Stores, it's just not everyone in there knows all the technical bits. The ones that don't will tend to direct you to or find someone who does though. Or they did when I was there, I agree with the person saying they are moving much more towards box-shifting these days, and it's a shame.
