“Apple Computer Inc. is unveiling a new store design to add more show room for iPod music players and Macintosh computers and stations where shoppers can get technical help for their products,” Connie Guglielmo reports for Bloomberg.
Guglielmo reports, “The new stores will have an ‘iPod Bar’ and Studio where artists and musicians will offer advice on creative projects, said Ron Johnson, who runs Apple’s retail operations. Apple stores already have ‘Genius Bars’ for repairs and questions on Macintosh computers.”
Guglielmo reports, “The new design puts twice as many Macs and iPods on display and should speed customer service, Johnson said. More than 10,000 people visit each store a week… The new design is modeled after Apple’s New York store on Fifth Avenue, which opened in May and has become the company’s most visited outlet. It includes stainless steel walls, Italian stone floors, illuminated displays and larger tables for showcasing Mac and iPod models. The design also lets Apple display 50 percent more products from other companies that sell Mac software and iPod accessories.”
With the iPod Bars, “Apple is starting with two new stores in Providence, Rhode Island, and Columbia, Maryland, set to open this weekend, Johnson said. That brings the total to 164 outlets,” Guglielmo reports. “About 70 percent of customers seeking technical help use the company’s online reservation system to make an appointment to visit the Genius Bar at their local store. The reservation system also takes appointments for store iPod Bars and Studios. Apple has added iPod Bars and Studios in a few existing stores. They will be now be a standard feature in every new store built.”
“Apple’s redesign comes as rival computer maker Dell Inc. is experimenting with retail stores. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell opened its first retail showroom in Dallas on July 25, a 3,000- square-foot center featuring 36 products. The store doesn’t carry any inventory, so customers have to order products online for delivery,” Guglielmo reports. “Dell, the world’s biggest personal computer maker, plans to open another showroom in West Nyack, New York, this year, said Ro Parra, head of Dell’s U.S. consumer business. [Dell] also is dealing with unexpected issues, like the customer who came in and loaded a screen saver on its PCs that said ‘Apple is the best,” Parra said.”
Full article here.
Screensaver? Gulp. Uh… hey, don’t look at us! We don’t know a thing about any screensaver. 
[Note: We do not condone installation of pro-Apple Mac screensavers on Dell or any other Windows PCs in homes, businesses or Dell retail experiments while they exist. Nor do we discourage doing so.]
Related articles:
Apple to celebrate grand openings of three US retail stores (MD, NE, RI) this Saturday – September 19, 2006
US’s fastest growing retailer, Apple, to introduce new retail store designs this month – September 13, 2006
More new Apple “Get a Mac” ads – one featuring Gisele Bündchen – seen in Apple Retail Store – September 05, 2006
50% of Apple Retail Store customers are ‘new to Mac’ – July 20, 2006
Apple debuts redesigned online Apple Retail Store pages – July 13, 2006
Sleek design of Apple products mirrored in architecture of company’s high-profile retail stores – June 29, 2006
How Apple’s Retail Store strategy beat the odds – May 16, 2006
Wired’s Kahney: Apple’s retail stores are genius – May 02, 2006
The somewhat overlooked locomotive that pulls Apple’s train: Apple’s growing cadre of retail stores – January 12, 2006
Apple Retail Stores hit $1 billion mark for total sales; fastest retailer to achieve that mark – June 07, 2004
Will Dell’s retail computer stores work sans inventory? – May 30, 2006
Dell to open retail stores – May 22, 2006
MDN, why not a contest for the best guerrilla screensaver at a Dell retail showroom?
Cool! Install a store in Nuevo Mexico por favor?
ye i know
I went into an apple store once and on one of the 30″ displays I loaded the terminal into full screen. I made the background black and the next green, and I pulled up a whole bunch of technical information. The dudes working in the store freaked out, and thought the computer had broke. It was wonderful.
I would for sure compete in a guerilla screen saver contest!
If nothing else, Apple stores ARE to crowded now.
Mine (Syracuse) is a mini store, and often times I will pass by.
An honest-to-goodness, genuine, solid gold, prize-winning Wonka bar to de first person who gets all de screens in de store to say “Shut it down and give de money back to de shareholders.”
Yeh-heh-hehessssss . . . I always wanted to say that.
Ohh, and one 24k solid gold replica poop from yours truly.
[Dell] also is dealing with unexpected issues, like the customer who came in and loaded a screen saver on its PCs that said ‘Apple is the best,” Parra said.”
That is hilarious. But we shouldn’t condone it. That’s even funnier.
How about a blue screen of death screensaver.
Proposed screensaver:
You’re going to buy a virus-riddled, functionally-limited dull little box, and you drove all the way here JUST TO PLACE AN ORDER??!?
On second thought, too many words for a Dull purchaser…nevermind
Nuevo Mexico store is being built as we speak, in Albuquerque. The question is, when will it open? It’s gonna be at the new (and really gorgeous) ABQ Uptown plaza at Louisiana and Indian School. I think only one store has opened there so far, a jewelry store, but it’s hard to tell how far along the others are. They advertised jobs for the ABQ Uptown Apple Store back in May and had interviews in July, so you’d think they’d be planning to open soon.
C’mon, Ampar…help us out here…
I do it every time I visit BEst Buy…nothing like it. ‘Apple rules’ is my most freq. used for screen savers. Am I a fetishist?
Sorry, Fatty. I’m taking a “sick of trolls and nick stealers” break. Maybe another time.
ok how bout : “I wish I was a Macintosh” screensaver? lol
and i work within easy walking distance of the uptown store!
The Dell store is at the Northpark Center in Dallas, which also has an Apple Store. I encourage everyone who buys an Apple product there to go “browse” at the Dell showroom with their Mac or iPod purchase in hand, while the Dell customers stand in line to order. No one will be looking at screens, they will be looking at Apple logos.
On second thought, too many words for a Dull purchaser…nevermind
How about “Dell bad… Apple good!”
Some other ideas for your visit
Pull up this page on IE
http://www.northparkcenter.com/newstores/apple_computer.html
Start as many programs as needed to get Blue Screen Of Death (probably 3)
Download iTunes
“If I was a Mac, you could take me home” screensaver
Also-
“Please, someone, stick an iPod in my port”
“What is a smart person like you doing in a place like this?”
“FIRE!!!”
“At Dell, we still have floppies…”
MW:followed. How ironic
Dell should add fire extinguishers to its product line.
How about this:
“Get a Real Computer: There’s an Apple Store downstairs”
(I just looked at the map–there’s an Apple Store on the first floor of NorthPark mall. The Dell Store is right upstairs on the other side of the aisle!)
Microsoft and dell have added a new range of reinforced pants that will control the effects of any future apple brilliance. Boy, I have never been smugger . . ha. Two Mac Mini computers will replace a dull and an hp this weekend, getting my friends to see the light has never been easier. just leave Stockholm and it’s simple.
One of my local Apple Stores is already pretty much an “iPod Store” — racks and racks of iPods and accessories, with Mac software relegated to a teeny tiny area in the back corner of the store.
Not exactly a welcome sight for someone walking in off the street wanting to know if they should switch to a Mac.
Apple’s done well with reviving the Macintosh line — last January, there was no talk at MacWorld SF about it becoming “iPod World”. But putting too much emphasis on the iPod at the expense of the Mac isn’t the way to go if you’re trying to get folks to switch…
We do not condone installation of pro-Apple Mac screensavers on Dell or any other Windows PCs in homes, businesses or Dell retail experiments while they exist. Nor do we discourage doing so
I don’t even know how to use a Windows PC!
*smacks bill gates doll across the room*
loaded a screen saver on its PCs that said ‘Apple is the best’
Load a screen saver nothing! That’s the standard “Marquee” screen saver in Windows!
Hint: If you are going to do something like this in the Marquee screen saver, type your message, and then follow it with as many space characters as possible. That way it will display, and then screen will go to just the background color for a while before repeating. That way it will take the SOB’s a little longer to notice it!
I have a confession to make…
I have moved PC magazines to the back row, and Mac magazines to the front row of the rack, on more than one occasion at my local grocery stores.