Apple is reportedly developing a new checkout system based on the iPod touch, according to an ifoAppleStore report posted on AppleInsider. The "EasyPay touch" configuration consists of an iPod case integrating a barcode scanner, additional battery cells and a magnetic stripe reader. The hardware is paired with custom point-of-sale (POS) software.
Despite earlier reports suggesting the Carousel de Louvre Apple Store would be ready by November 15th, the French site macgeneration now claims the grand opening is scheduled for November 7th. Sources allege the company will provide official details by Friday, including a partnership with the nearest Starbucks to provide free coffee for early birds waiting in line.
Apple will open its 270th store this weekend, launching the Promenade Temecula Apple Store Saturday, September 26. The store, located at 40820 Winchester Road, Temecula, CA 92591 in the Promenade Temecula mall, will open at 10:00 a.m. PDT. The store will offer the Apple standards -- Apple products like the iPhone, iMac and MacBooks, and Genius Bar face to face support. Hands-on workshops will be available and the One to One program will be available. The store phone number will be (951) 326-2400. Currently, no workshops have been scheduled in the first week of operation. Hours will run 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Mon-Sat, with Sunday hours of 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m..
The upcoming Apple Store located on 67th Street and Broadway in NYC is expected to be completed before Thanksgiving, a construction worker told the Westside Independent. A separate source in the investment community also claims Apple is already working on staffing the location, as several employees in surrounding stores have allegedly been offered managerial positions.
A new Apple Store in Ottawa, Canada will be having its grand opening this Saturday, July 18th at 9:30 a.m.. As indicated by construction photographs, the Rideau Center location has very similar elements to the company's other retail establishments, such as the Genius Bar and wall displays. Compared to other stores, the single-story outlet is larger than average. This should not come as much of a surprise, considering the store will be the first of its kind in Ottawa, the nation's capitol, and only the ninth so far in all of Canada.
Apple today said it would open its retail stores at 7 a.m. local time on Friday, June 19 -- one hour earlier than its previously announced time of 8 a.m. The new time is the same as launch time of the new iPhone 3G S at AT&T retail stores, which also open at 7 a.m.; the carrier, however, will only distribute the devices to owners who pre-ordered the device through its direct fulfillment service and said that other customers will only be able to purchase the phones starting at 9 a.m., according to the same report by News.com.
An Apple Store located at The Village in the Sanlitun area of Beijing on Saturday suffered a flood that spread water across part of the ground level of the tri-level retail space. One manager claimed the water was from a fire hydrant malfunction, although the incident is currently still under investigation by the property management team. The store did manage to keep two levels running as normal through the flood, with access only blocked to the affected area.
Apple has provided additional details regarding its retail stores, with information included in the Q1 financial reports. Total revenue for all locations set a new record of $1.74 billion for the December quarter, with an average of $7 million attributed to each store. The volume of foot traffic followed the same trend, with a total of 46.7 million visitors for the quarter and over 14,000 people passing through each store every week. Despite the impressive numbers, the segment margin was down to $353 million from $405 million last year, while average revenue per store also suffered because of the difficult retail environment.
The grand opening of Apple's Munich store drew huge crowds Saturday morning, with an estimated 4,000 visitors in the first few hours, according to ifoAppleStore. People began waiting in line as early as 1:30 a.m. local time, well before the 10:00 a.m. door opening. Apple gave away 2,500 t-shirts to the first visitors, as a promotion to fill the store on the first day. High-profile city officials and business representatives were invited to a VIP reception on Friday evening.
Apple has abandoned any plans for a store on West 34th street in Manhattan, claims the New York Post. Apple currently leases 21-25 on West 34th, which is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, and within a short distance of the Empire State Building. The real estate is capable of supporting up to 18,000 square feet, but Apple is said to have lost interest in establishing a store on the site, and is presently looking to sub-lease through Robert K. Futterman. RKF's website lists availability starting April 1st 2009, for a maximum period of 13 years.
This week marks a slew of Apple Store openings, as Israel's first Apple location, launched by iDigital, opened Sunday, Geneva and Bristol open Thursday, Friday sees Zurich's Glattzentrum shopping center open and Honolulu's third store arrives Saturday alongside Calgary. Geneva opens four days earlier than originally predicted, and will be located on the Rue de Rive. Geneva and Zurich's Glattzentrum are the second and third Swiss Apple Store.
Apple recently updated its iPhone availability page availability page, stating, "To accommodate demand for iPhone 3G, all Apple Retail Stores will now open at 8:00 a.m. every day but Sunday. We're also adding staff to help you get up and running as quickly as possible." The demand for the iPhone 3G has been excessive and Apple's retail stores have been flooded with long lines for iPhones across the United States. Apple has responded to this by increasing hours and staffing to help more customers each day.
Top Muffin has assembled a persistent listing of iPhone availability at Apple stores throughout the country using a statistical tracking system published by Apple. As of this writing, Top Muffin reveals that only 15 stores in the US are completely without iPhone stock, with the rest alleging stock of either the 8GB, 16GB White, and 16GB Black models. The three Manhattan flagship stores – West 14th, 5th Avenue, and SoHo – all show stock of all three models.
Several new Apple Stores are set to open their doors Saturday, including one in Liverpool, England. Housed in the redeveloped Liverpool One Complex, the new store is Apple's 16th in the UK. The company is also opening stores in Montreal, Glendale, Arizona, and Charleston, South Carolina.
In less than 10 days since its problem-plagued launch, Apple has sold out of stock of iPhones in all of its stores except three, including every state except New York, California, and New Hampshire. Apple notes that on Monday none of its 137 locations in the US will have stock of the 8GB iPhone and that the only location to have the 16GB black iPhone will be its retail store in Pleasanton, California (Stoneridge Mall). The only other two stores to have stock of the iPhone are the retail locations in Salem, New Hampshire (Rockingham Park) and New York City (Fifth Avenue) -- both of which only have the 16GB white iPhone model.
Mac fans in Australia have more than just tomorrow’s Keynote to look forward to, as the country’s first Apple Store opens later this month. The Sydney Morning Herald says the store will be one of only three in the world spread out over three stories, that it will house the largest "Genius Bar" in the world, and that will offer Apple's Pro Lab service, which provides in-depth training to professional users (Pro Lab services are only available in two other Apple Stores - at one of its flagship stores in New York and in the recently opened Boston flagship store). In an exclusive interview with the newspaper, Apple’s Senior Vice President Ron Johnson said it will be "a breathtaking store,” with some sort of secret architectural feature taking up a significant amount of floor space.
Investment firm Piper Jaffray on Monday released a note saying it expects a 3G iPhone by mid-June, based on an almost complete drought of current generation iPhone stock. The note mentions that out of 11 US stores, only six had stock of the iPhone, five of which had more than five units. The lack of stock is also reflected in the UK, with O2 saying the device is unavailable, while the US Apple Store changed availability to "Currently Unavailable".
According to new data from Nielsen Online, Web traffic to the Apple Inc's sites collectivly grew 13 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2008, from a three-month average monthly unique audience of 42.9 million to 48.4 million. Total minutes spent on the site grew 12 percent year over year, from 9.4 billion in Q1 2007 to 10.5 billion in Q1 2008, while total purchases at The Apple Store grew 32 percent month over month, from 322,000 purchases in January 2008 to 424,000 purchases in February 2008. iTunes, Apple Store and QuickTime were the top three fastest growing Apple Computer Web channels year over year in Q1 2008
The long-awaited NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT upgrade for Mac Pros has been released. The graphics card features 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory, uses the PCI Express interface, and includes two dual-link DVI ports, and is capable of driving up to two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays. It requires a Mac Pro (bus speed 1.33GHz) with PCI-Express. The card is priced at $280 and can be purchased as a standalone, user-installable item or as a build-to-order option for Early 2008 Mac Pros through the online Apple Store. Controversy ensued when Apple introduced this upgrade card as an option available exclusively to newly purchased Mac Pros in January. At the time, users presented research that shows the cards should be backwards compatible. Apple is now making the kit available, in supported fashion, to all Mac Pros with a bus speed for at least 1.33GHz.
Apple is continuing its expansion of its successful retail stores, according to ifoAppleStore. The report indicates that Apple plans to open yet another retail store in the Bay Area, this one inside the Hillsdale Shopping Center, a 1950s-era enclosed mall that is privately owned by the Bohannon family. The shopping center features more than 130 shops over 1.3 million square-feet. Other Apple stores in the area include San Francisco (23 miles north), Stonestown (20 miles N.), Burlingame (4 miles N.), Palo Alto/Stanford (12 miles S.), and Valley Fair (30 miles S.). Apple also plans a new store in Toronto at the Fairview Mall by November. The mall is located along Highway 404, northeast of the city center. Finally, Apple has its eyes on the Willowbrook Mall in the city of Wayne, New Jersey about 25 miles northwest of Manhattan. This would be would be the 11th store in the state, and will open by the 2008 holiday season.
In brief: We've posted a review DiscCatalogMaker RE, a part of the Toast Titanium package, Cancom buys Scotsys' Scotland Mac store, TransGaming joins the Khronos Group and R.E.M. performs at London Apple Store ... We have posted a review of DiscCatalogMaker RE, part of the Toast 9 bundle. DiscCatalogMaker catalogs everything on your external discs or internal hard drives. If you want it to also scan compacted files, such as .zip, .sit, or even the age-old Compact Pro archives you can check those boxes in the Preferences. You can also set the preferences to open a new or existing Catalog upon launch, set a font, and choose white or horizontal stripes for the background window. You can also choose a detailed view or choose the type and creator view.
In brief: We have a review of the Speck ActiveFit Armband, an Apple Store thief stuffed a 13" MacBook down his pants, MacTech is offering VBA to AppleScript bundles, MacSpeech extends its crossgrade offer, and Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual for the Mac ships.. We have posted a review of the Speck ActiveFit Armband. The inside felt-like material protects your iPod from scratching when it is inserted or removed. The case is sewn onto a breathable mesh pad that extends into a foot-long armband. The armband includes well-secured 1.25" long Velcro strips every inch. The video screen sits behind a flexible thick clear plastic sewn into the case. The Click Wheel is exposed though, so you may want to use a Gelaskin to protect it from grime. All the stitching is clean, straight, but a couple of dangling threads appeared after a few weeks of wear.
More than 300 iPhones were stolen from an Apple store in the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hamshire. The culprits? Two employees: Joshua Garrand, 28, of Methuen, Mass., and Christopher Nashed, 22, of Sandown who have now been brought before the court on felony theft charges of stealing $132,468 worth of iPhones and selling them on the black market. The Eagle-Tribune reports that police wouldn't say whether the men were selling the phones online or how sophisticated their operation wasm but would say that investigators were first contacted by the store in early January. One Salem police sergeant spent three months on the case. One of the suspects, Nashed, is being held on $250,000 bail at the Rockingham County Jail. He is expected to appear today in Salem District Court for arraignment. Garrand, meanwhile is being held at Essex County Jail in Middlesex, Mass.
All three of Apple's New York stores are reportedly out of stock of all iPhone models – the SoHo, 59th Street, and West 14th Street locations. According to The Huffington Post. all three stores report that the device is out of stock, and it is uncertain when new units would be available. A representative from the 59th Street store advised potential iPhone customers to order online.
In brief: Apple will open a store in Cherry Hill, NJ this weekend, Office 2008 "the missing manual" is now shipping, Sofa Control is one of the new applications on its way from Gravity, ... Apple will be opening its latest retail store in Cherry Hill, NJ this weekend. The Apple Store Cherry Hill will open to the public on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The last Apple retail store to open was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Thursday, March 6th. Apple is also planning to open four new stores in Europe, branching out with retail outlets in Monaco, Zurich, Geneva, and Ireland. Apple posted job listings for three of those stores, but refrained from specifying opening dates or exact locations.
yooph.nl reports on a banner appearing on the Dutch Apple Store showing the iPod Touch priced at 199 euros, a steep drop from the previous 279 euro price. Official store prices are still listed at 279 euros for 8GB, 369 euros for 16GB and 459 euros for 32GB. The apparently leaked banner has led to speculation that price drops for the iPod Touch may be on the way worldwide. Apple COO Timothy Cook recently said that Apple's focus in its iPod division over the past few months was the introduction and rollout the iPod Touch. He sees getting the "first mainstream WiFi portable platform" out as a big strategic move.
Apple has officially announced the grand opening of its newest retail store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Thursday, March 6th (different store interior shown at right). A media event begins at 9:00 a.m. CST, and the store will officially open to the public at 10:00 a.m. The Apple Store in the Mall of Louisiana at 6401 Bluebonnet Boulevard offers all the standard amenities customers expect, like personal training through the company's One to One program and face-to-face support via a Genius Bar.
In brief: There's now a way to constantly monitor Apple Store status, N.E.D. tutorial-video 2.0 has been released, a new mail service has debuted for the iPhone, and Chronos is offering leap year specials ... pingdom as developed a banner and code combination that will show the current status of the Apple store -- usually a harbinger of product announcements. The creators say "As the whole Mac community knows, when Apple Store goes down for maintenance, there is a good chance that Apple is about to release something new or update an existing product. To spare you the trouble of constantly keeping an eye on the Apple Store, we here at Pingdom have set up monitoring of the US Apple Store status, and also created a small banner that will show its current status."
In brief: We've posted a Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M review, Polk Audio products will soon show up in Apple stores, Northwestern students used iPhones to gauge Super Bowl ads, Nielsen has Yahoo!/Microsoft merger metrics, and Tessera has acquired Fotonation ... We have posted a review of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M, which seems to be the one exception to various negative assumptions about scanners. It is a small scanner, about the size of a loaf of bread (11.2 in. × 6.2 in. × 6.2 in.), and weighs only 5.9 lb. The paper feeder can hold 50 sheets and it can scan a variety of paper sizes, including 8.5 x 14.17-inches (216 x 360 mm) down to 2 x 2-inches (50.8 x 50.8 mm). At best, the ScanSnap can scan color documents at 600dpi, black and white at 1,200dpi, and Duplex at 0.6 pages per minute to 1.2 images per minute.
In brief: Apple stores are now selling Polk Audio products, students at Northwestern University are using Facebook and the iPhone to perform a statistical analysis, and Tessera Technologies is in the process of acquiring FotoNation. Starting in March 2008, Apple's US retail outlets will sell the I-Sonic ES2 sound system, which features iTunes tagging for HD radio, allowing users to bookmark songs. Once songs are tagged, users can attach the iPod to their computer, and preview, buy, and download the tagged tracks.
The exact location of Apple's first Chinese store has been uncovered, according to reports. Although it had been known for some time that the store would be built in Beijing, and would open prior to the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in August, it is only now that some of the final details have emerged. The store will be located on Qianmen Street, a road on the south side of Tiananmen Square that is undergoing a $40 million renovation in advance of the Olympics.
Apple's first-quarter financial results revealed record retail revenue of $1.7 billion for a whopping 53 percent growth over the year-ago quarter. "We opened six other new stores during the quarter, ending with 204 stores," said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. "With an average of 201 stores open during the quarter, average revenue per store was $8.5 million compared to $6.6 million in the year-ago quarter." The stores sold a record 504,000 Macs, representing a 64 percent year-over-year growth. The company also said that it added more than 10 million visitors over the year-ago quarter.
Apple may be readying yet another store front in California. The company is finalizing a deal for a retail location in Santa Barbara, according source cited by the Santa Barbara News-Press . The report says that Apple will take over the Pier 1 Imports store at 928 State St. in about two months; the lease is said to be about $68,000 a month for a large 15,000 space on State Street, the center of the city's downtown shopping district. The location is just down the street from the Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and other retailers.
Apple's online store is already down for maintenance ahead of company CEO Steve Jobs' keynote speech, scheduled for 9:00 a.m. local time. Jobs is expected to unveil a new ultra-portable MacBook with flash-based storage, and could announce the addition of iTunes movie rental agreements with major Hollywood studios. The Apple store historically goes down for maintenance just before Jobs unveils new products or services, but today's keynote is still two hours away.
A little girl in Maryland this Christmas opened a box that was supposed to contain an iPod classic, only to discover a book and a strange note in place of the portable player she thought she had received, according to myfoxdc. The box, which her father purchased at a local Wal-Mart store, contained "Awakening Loving-Kindness" by Pema Chodron accompanied by a strange letter, which reads: "Reclaim your mind from the media's shackles. Read a book and resurrect yourself. To claim your capitalistic garbage go to your nearest Apple Store."
One of Apple's 40 new retail stores planned for 2008 will be another New York City shop, according to reports. Following the recent opening of its third (and largest) Manhattan retail store earlier this month, the company is intending to tear down and rebuild a storefront at 1981 Broadway, on the northwest corner of West 67th Street; the current building is an 8,500 square-foot Victoria's Secret, and was at one point the site of the Cineplex Odeon Regency Theater. Victoria's Secret parent company Limited Brands has reportedly been attempting to sublease the space for some time.
The online Apple Store is pushing a special holiday promotion for today (December 10th) only where users can receive free shipping on any item purchased. The offer is available December 10th, 2007 from 3:30 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. PST. Excepted from the promtion are APC racks and uninterruptible power supply products, but apparently all other third-party products fall under the offer.
Apple has officially declared that its newest retail store on West 14th Street in New York's Meatpacking District will open on Friday, December 7th at 6:00 p.m. EST. The new store is Apple's first three-story retail space that boasts two floors dedicated to products and a third dedicated to services, including a 46-foot Genius Bar and specially designed areas for workshops as well as personal training. The Apple Store West 14th Street also introduces Pro Labs where customers can receive free, in-depth training on Apple's industry-leading pro applications including Final Cut Pro.
Apple is opening another retail store in New York at 401 West 14th Street, making it the third store to open in the sprawling metropolis. With already two record-making Apple locations – SoHo was the first to feature the glass staircase, and Fifth Avenue is the store with the large glass cube in front – the company looks to do it again: the large, three-floor location will be Apple's largest in the city. Apple will open the doors to the new location at 6:00PM on Friday, December 7th, in New York's Meatpacking district. Customers that are interested in showing up early will receive commemorative T-shirts and are eligible for other prizes, while supplies last.
Multiple sources cited by ifoAppleStore point to a grand opening date of December 7th for Apple's third high-profile New York City retail store. Located in the Meatpacking District, the store stands to match the company's SoHo and Fifth Avenue stores in architectural design. The two-story corner shop located on 14th Street will likely open its doors at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, according to sources. One other source however suggested that the grand opening will occur on Saturday, December 8th.
Members of the Dutch royal family are among the latest to own iPhones, German and Dutch sites are reporting. Willem-Alexander, the Prince of Orange and heir to the Dutch throne, was yesterday spotted buying two iPhones with his wife, the Argentinian-born Máxima. The purchase was unusual in that it was not made at a European store, but rather at Apple's Fifth Avenue outlet in New York City, where the iPhones are by default locked to AT&T; to use an iPhone in the Netherlands, owners must either buy an unlocked device from France or Germany, or else install hacks.
Apple has been progressively changing its retail store format over the past year, eliminating cash registers while introducing several new services and increased staffing, to create a more personalized and friendly environment for customers. The recently introduced concierge service directs customers to whatever section of the store they wish to browse, as well as connecting customers with their appointed personal shopper or trainer. Several employees will wander around, entertaining simple questions, and carry around a portable scanner, ready to ring through any purchases that customers may have. Receipts are instantly emailed to the customer, and a paper version can be obtained from store staff.
Holiday traffic at Apple's retail stores may reflect an increased flow of PC users migrating to Macs, say analysts with the firm Piper Jaffray. Monitoring six hours' worth of visitors to Apple Stores in the American east and midwest, the firm discovered this weekend that an abnormal 27 percent of those who passed within 25 feet of a store would walk in. On Friday afternoon, some 462 people were entering Apple Stores per hour, while by Saturday evening this rate had fallen to 241. This is likely evidence of more shopper interest, says Piper, which could lead to greater sales for Apple in 2008 and 2009.
