Apple Store 2.0

http://www.9to5mac.com/68299/apple-store-2-0-gets-official-interactive-ipads-replace-paper-signs-more/

by ssclafani • 15 years ago

44 16 15 years ago

I have been to an Apple store today (Downtown Toronto) after many years, as I live in a small town. The number of people in the store was much larger than many others in the mall, but I doubt that 95% of people there were actually making a purchase or planning what type of machine they want.

Saw a guy watching soccer, another checking convocation dates, other checking horoscope. Apple stores are becoming the free internet cafe. It doesn't matter that no-one is buying, as long as they are using a Mac.

And, sadly, I wasn't able to check exactly what I wanted to check, the resolution on a Macbook Air 13".

ugh2• 15 years ago

Apple is raking in the money with those stores. $9 billion (of $65 billion) revenue in 2010, $2.4 billion (of $18 billion) profit.

“One metric used to measure the financials of a retail store is sales per square foot, which is the average revenue generated for every square foot of sales space. This metric is used to gauge the efficiency of a retail operation; the higher the sales per square foot, the better. Jeweler Tiffany & Company's $2700 per square foot used to be considered the gold standard, but Apple has surpassed Tiffany, generating more than $4000 in sales per square foot. By comparison, Best Buy's sales per square foot is about $1000, and Walmart's is about $400.” (http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=572252E1-1A64-6A71-CE7880C0...)

People are most certainly buying.

elithrar• 15 years ago

It's a bit closer to $5000/sqft these days: https://twitter.com/asymco/status/71216106173509633

spicyj• 15 years ago

1440 x 900, if you were still looking for that.

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs-13inch.html

fuzzythinker2• 15 years ago

I'm sure he knows how to find that. Checking how the resolution feels like for him is probably what he meant.

tehjones• 15 years ago

This is really cool and all, but it doesnt seem like it will be any more environmentally friendly than paper. Certainly more expensive.

cstross• 15 years ago

1. The "tap to call for assistance" feature doesn't work with paper.

2. You can cram a lot more information into an interactive screen than you can on a single side of paper -- the shop displays will be fundamentally more useful and informative.

3. Centrally controlled updates to pricing. Ability to request build-to-order options at the shop counter. Means less staff running around the store checking all the displays are in order.

4. When the iPads are out of date they can be sold off as refurbs. (They're embedded in plexiglass boxes so unlikely to get scratched up by customers.)

5. Power consumption of an iPad is dwarfed by the power consumption of the lighting and aircon/heating for that amount of floor space in a premium store.

6. These are probably minimum-spec 16Gb wifi-only iPads. (They're in a store, with guaranteed bandwidth and presumably a central server behind the magic curtain. They don't need to store stacks of movies and tutorials directly.)

7. Anyway, since when has "environmentally friendly" been a primary operational criterion for any high-end retailer? Apple aren't in the business of minimizing resource extraction, they're in the business of maximizing profits. Obviously, they think whizzy animated interactive store displays will help them do so. Saving trees is way down their list ...

iaskwhy• 15 years ago

It's amazing how they can now sell you an iPad 2[1] when you were just looking for which iPod model to buy. This isn't just upselling!

[1] "Oh, wow, I wanna take this too!"

cwilson• 15 years ago

I wonder if they have iPad 2's next to the iPad 2's?

culturestate• 15 years ago

They do. You can see them in a photo at http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-store-2-0-goes-live-int...

flyosity• 15 years ago

That's a lot of cords...

mgkimsal• 15 years ago

http://www.macstories.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IMG_001...

illustrates just how ugly and annoying those wires are. Perhaps we'll eventually see wire-free ipads. OTA syncing as an option, for a start, and perhaps Apple will be the company to bring us wireless electricity. Just like with many other products and services, Apple's not the first to tackle something, but they refine it to such a degree that it's usable for the masses.

abuzzooz• 15 years ago

Agreed about the ugliness. A simple inductance-based charger would do the trick, but I'm not holding my breath for Apple to adopt that.

ugh2• 15 years ago

Those are actually two wires, one is permanently attached so that you can’t just pick up the iPad and take it with you.

Apple Store 2.0

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