
Apple Store 2.0 - ssclafani
http://www.9to5mac.com/68299/apple-store-2-0-gets-official-interactive-ipads-replace-paper-signs-more/
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bioinformatics
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".

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ugh
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...](http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=572252E1-1A64-6A71-CE7880C06A55CD6C))

People are most certainly buying.

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

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

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culturestate
They do. You can see them in a photo at [http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-
store-2-0-goes-live-int...](http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-
store-2-0-goes-live-interactive-ipads-and-more/)

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flyosity
That's a lot of cords...

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iaskwhy
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!"

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mgkimsal
[http://www.macstories.net/wp-
content/uploads/2011/05/IMG_001...](http://www.macstories.net/wp-
content/uploads/2011/05/IMG_0016.jpg)

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.

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

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

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cstross
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 ...

