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God you people will complain about anything. I'm sure you are the same people that said iPod and iPad would flop. Im with apple on this one. Great idea, wonderful execution. Can't wait to experience it in person, and also to see what else is in store for apple store 2.0.

PS. To all of you complaining about cables, your clearly never seen an apple store before.

So you go along with anything :apple: does, no critical thinking?
 
If this is the big update people are curious about for tomorrow it doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.
 
Just another reason I love buying Apple products. Retail experience, packaging, setup, usage, and support, are all at a completely different level from the competition. Cradle to grave, all the little details add up.

Do I know how to navigate to Apple.com and compare different products? Of course. Is it still fun and convenient to have all this information at my fingertips at the physical store? Sure!
 
I was just at the apple store in Park Meadows mall this afternoon, and they do not have these displays.
 
iPads not included

I think so too. Even at Apple, still not free of cables.

If they were free of cables, they would be free of iPads, as people would walk off with the displays, freely. Cables are usually attached to alarms (and power). It would be nice, however, if they were inset into the tables or walls.

Now, you can be totally wowed by an iPad even when shopping for something else. The ultimate upsale.
 
Pretty awesome idea, i am sure will help sales with this type of interactive info. might have to pop by the apple store tomorrow :)
 
Very nice! They're kinda going green by not wasting paper/plastic every time a price is changed.

You clearly don't understand what being green really is :rolleyes:

Also I think this is overkill, they could have 1-2 ipad (even a huge one) at each table.
 
What now, Ballmer?

iPads as interactive sales tools are obviously extremely successful. For example, Mercedes-Benz has been using iPads in showrooms for almost a year now. And finally, Apple is using their own product to sell itself and everything else Apple makes.

Let's see if Ballmer tries to use Business Tablets in Microsoft stores. Running Windows. Surely he isn't that much of a slavish Apple-copier. Or is he?
 
This is a cool idea, though it seems like a waste of energy and perfectly good iPads. It's more advertising for the iPad. I can see it potentially expanding to other retail stores to streamline the shopping experience.
 
Very nice! They're kinda going green by not wasting paper/plastic every time a price is changed.

There nothing green about the production of any consumer electronics.
Paper and plastic are easily recycled compared to semiconductor components.
 
I was at an auto show over the the winter and they used iPads as kiosks, worked really well.
Though, I think the iPads having their own iPad kiosk is stupid. Why not just have the demo uint be the kiosk as well? Make a functioning home button. If the device is left alone after a few seconds automatically launch the kiosk app.

Less clutter and a little less waste.:confused:
 
Another useless way to show the usefulness of the iPad. Pretty soon they be using them as coasters. And to make a big deal out of it like it was a top secret event? Lame.
 
Google's retail experience? Zero.

Just another reason I love buying Apple products. Retail experience, packaging, setup, usage, and support, are all at a completely different level from the competition. Cradle to grave, all the little details add up. [...]

Agree. Microsoft has precious little customer-facing retail experience. They make most of their money from Windows OEM deals with the HPs and Dells of the world.

Google has no clue. 96% of their revenue comes from AdMob ads. Their customers are advertisers, not end-user consumers. Your eyeballs on ads is what Google sells.

So Microsoft and Google are clueless newbies when it comes to retail. And hands-on retail is how tablets get sold to a large segment of the consumer market. Pad computing is such a personal, intimate experience, that reading specs and looking at JPEGs online just doesn't cut it. There's nothing like actually using an iPad. And several days a month, a million people worldwide visit the 320+ Apple Stores worldwide. Think about it.

Oh wait. I forgot that Microsoft did have one or two huge retail stores. There was one in the (ex-)Sony Metreon in SF. It closed in 2001. Microsoft didn't lose big bucks like Gateway did with their chain of failed Country Stores. At least not yet.
 
Silly Apple, iPads are for customers. Maybe this is why there was an explosion at Foxconn. The workers found out that all of their hard work in creating a product that played music, movies, and apps was actually used as an electronic price tag. What's next? iPod Touch brochures?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Seriously aiqw9182 there is a feature called "private message". No one else cares.

That said I really want to get to an Apple Store and play with these.
 
Most retail stores will eventually move to digital signage, Apple likes to stay at the forefront. I think it's actually smarter (and cheaper) for them to use iPads because they are readily available and they can implement them for a few thousand per store.

Let's put it into simpler terms:

Apple makes $4,000+ per sq. ft. in their retail spaces, significantly higher than any other retailer including Tiffany, Saks Fifth, and Best Buy. Assuming a cost of $250 per iPad, this means each store can be equipped with thirty iPads and make that money back with two square feet per retail space in one year. Not bad at all.

As for the bickering, what gives? It's polluting this otherwise fascinating thread of speculation and observation. Pull it together. One guy feeds on this stuff, the other is just encouraging it by responding.
 
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