Jonathan Ive “has begun to work with [Angela] Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice-president of retail, on a redesign — as yet unannounced — of the Apple Stores,” Ian Parker reports for The New Yorker.
“These new spaces will surely become a more natural setting for vitrines filled with gold (and perhaps less welcoming, at least in some corners, to tourists and truants),” Parker reports. “Apple had not, overnight, become an élite-oriented company—and it would sell seventy-five million iPhones in the final quarter of 2014, many of them in China—but I wondered how rational, and pure of purpose, one can make the design of a V.I.P. area. Ive later told me that he had overheard someone saying, ‘I’m not going to buy a watch if I can’t stand on carpet.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Not only will existing stores be refitted to accommodate Apple Watch, but (hint, hint):
How about “Apple Watch Stores” (either stores-within-stores or as separate entities, kiosks or otherwise grander) dedicated specifically to Apple Watch customers? Watch and see. – MacDailyNews, February 3, 2015
Say hello to dedicated Apple Watch Stores. – MacDailyNews, February 13, 2015
MacDailyNews Note: Today is Washington’s Birthday in the U.S.A., a federal holiday and, as such, the U.S. markets are closed for the day. We will resume our normal posting schedule tomorrow.
Related articles:
Wave goodbye to the last of Apple’s mini-stores – February 13, 2015
The Apple Watch could push techies out of Apple Retail Stores – How about ‘Apple Watch Stores?’ – February 3, 2015
Apple retail veteran Bob Bridger is leaving; big changes coming – February 3, 2015
What the hell does carpet have to do with being in the right frame of mind to buy a watch? Hardwood is more classy than carpet anyway.
Apple is looking to hire people for their stores that have British and French accents. 😉
I think Inspector Clouseau is looking for work…
Interesting that you would choose a Brit who is best remembered for playing a dignified but hapless French detective.
Peter Sellers was brilliant at regional British accents as well:
The depth of the detail Apple’s design crew goes into when designing a product isn’t appreciated until you go through the whole very long article.
Then you start getting a feel for how intense and broad their thinking and trials are at Apple. Their design studio produces thousands of models every year, but they only release a few new product versions each year.
Nothing is done by accident in the design department. They fuss over the smallest details to make the whole product feel great.
Expect a genius bar appointment type of system to be applied for people wishing to shop for an Apple Watch in an Apple Store.
You will not be let into the expensively outfitted strong room without one.
Expect a rationing of the number of people in the Apple watch strong room at any given time.
Those in need of an Apple Watch in a hurry will have to order one online.
That is Crabapples verdict!
I really hope it’s not someone in a t-shirt selling the Apple Watch in the Apple Store.
I hear Mitt Romney’s wife knows where to spend $3000 on a t-shirt. Maybe Apple just needs to co-locate the Watch sales there.
Angela has already redesigned the shirts. Perhaps you hadn’t noticed.
How about appropriately attired, dressed in professional clothing or not someone in a polo shirt trying to sell someone a gold watch. You know, look the part.
Luxurious carpet is often perceived as a sign of wealth. It cushions the feet and dampens the sounds of shoes. It provides warmth in winter. So, I would take that as an elitist comment.
I am 36 years old and have never encountered the word “vitrines” in my life. Had to look it up.
Instant look-up in OS X via a three finger tap over the word if you’re using a trackpad.
Cool tip – thanks. Can also be accessed as mouse right-click.
I’ve been doing command-control-D all this time. Didn’t know that one, thanks.
The word is from Freedom (also known as French), from “vitre” pane of glass and from Latin “vitrum” glass.
As such it can be used in the following context:
– Vitreous enamel, a coating on metal, glass or ceramic
– Vitreous lustre, a glassy luster or sheen on a mineral surface
– Vitreous humour, a clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina in vertebrate eyes
– Vitreous membrane, a layer of collagen separating the vitreous humour from the rest of the eye.
The latter two are commonly taught biology as part of human anatomy.
Probably identifies you as fairly normal and unpretentious. OTOH, perhaps the Apple Watch will be so special that it needs to be viewed only in a vitrine. I sure hope this whole thing stops inducing my gag reflex.
In order to succeed with the Apple Watch, Apple has to do two things: one, convince people that haven’t had a watch in over ten years to suddenly start wearing one again and two, sell watches to the very limited pool of people that still wear them.
A large chunk of the people that still wear watched wear them as jewelry and accessories and as a luxury item and as a “look at me, I’m rich item.” Those folks are a slice of humanity many of us don’t normally come into contact with and they have no interest in spending time wandering around an Apple Store among lesser beings in the hopes of catching the eye of some hipster wearing a t-shirt. If apple wants their business–and the high margins their business brings–apple will have to cater to them.
Gut feel says Apple will open a new line of retail stores.
LOL. You act as though people like that don’t go on cruises and buy Tag watches, or go to places like the Tag store at Florida’s Millenia mall. The thing is, the very rich are probably standing right next to you, and the only way you’d know is buy checking out their shoes. That’s the one thing that people who make a lot don’t skimp on.
The very rich are normally standing next to me at the King of Prussia Mall, and any number of places. They also aren’t who Apple has to worry about, they’ll give anything with an Apple logo on it a shot.
The wannabe very rich, or the rich but wish they were very rich (or want to look like they are very rich), on the other hand, are a whole different story. They need to be coddled, and babied, and made to feel special and unique everywhere they go. I don’t see those people at the mall. I see them sitting next to me while they’re being deposed.
Life, get one!
I can see the store-within-a-store working inside upscale department stores. Think Nordstroms or Bloomingdales. Macy’s already has Finish Line, Sunglass Hut and MAC cosmetics mini stores in the one near me.
A very long write up. It exposed viscerally the difference between Apple and Samsung, in the following quote:
“Brunner said, Ammunition (design firm) was approached by “a very large Korean company (Samsung obviously)” to create a touchscreen competitor (to iPhone): “They wanted us to do it in six weeks.” He laughed. “We were, like, ‘You don’t realize, this was years. This was years of a lot of very good people.’”
The new stores will be closed to the public as Jony thinks doors break up the majesty of the industrial design of the facade. They will just be for windowshopping.
In America, happiness is a Brit headed home with an Irishman under each arm.
I would be a happier Brit if I was headed home with an Irish woman under each arm…and if I was a Brit!
Ah, I’d be struggling under one arm, and Brenda, she’d be squirming under t’other, but we’d all be laughing gaily the whole way, the three of us. A toast to life, love, and the best there ever was!
Well, I hate crowds, and expect when this happens to have a snowballs chance in hell squeezing through fat people to see a watch. Bring your pepper spray. Lol.