Apple Retail

As we told you it would earlier this week, Apple opened its beautiful new Apple Store in the heart of Palo Alto, Calif., this morning. The front of the 15,030-square-foot store, located at 340 University Ave., is complete with a glass array, and it is estimated to cost roughly $3.15 million. The first 1,000 people received commemorative T-shirts. Check out the gallery below:

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Image via <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3544506/ipad-fourth-generation-hands-on" target="_blank">The Verge</a>

For those who purchased the third-generation iPad recently, and found themselves dumbfounded when the fourth-generation iPad was announced this afternoon, we have good news: CNET reported that local Apple Stores might replace a third-generation iPads with the new fourth-generation if it was purchased within the last 30 days. It is up to local Apple Stores to make the call if a customer can exchange or not. When speaking to a manager of an Apple Store, it was explained that the policy is on a store-to-store basis.

The manager at the Stockton Street store in San Francisco explained that “this specific store” would allow purchasers of the third-generation iPad to exchange their device for the fourth-generation iPad if purchased within the last 30 days. She emphasized that, unless the recently-purchased iPad showed serious signs of wear-and-tear, the usual 14-day return policy would be waived.

“And what about other stores?” You’ll have to call and find out. She explained, “We can’t speak to other stores’ policies — this is something our store has decided to do.”

The fourth-generation iPad, starting at $499, offers faster performance than the third-generation with a dual-core A6X processor and quad-core graphics. It also has a 5-megapixel iSight camera, expanded LTE chipset, front-facing camera with FaceTime and 720p video capture, ultrafast two-times Wi-Fi, and Lightening connector.

Call your local Apple Store to check—usually stores are pretty flexible. Let us know how it goes.

Additional specs below:

Apple will occupy the bottom of this building

Apple’s retail store expansion continues in China, as the company confirmed this evening that its third Apple Store in Beijing, China is opening Oct. 20. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company confirmed the news on its website, letting customers know the Wangfuijing store’s doors will open at 10 a.m. IfoAppleStore described the location:

Wangfujing Street, a mile-long, pedestrian-only collection of over 200 shops that include Chinese and international brands. The street’s retail history dates back to 1200, and it is now a major destination for locals and tourists. The existing Xidan Joy City Apple store is about a mile west of Tianman Square, while the Wangfujing location will be east of the square. The country’s first Apple store at Sanlitun is about 3½ miles northeast.

China has proved to be a big growth market for Apple. The company has positioned itself aggressively there with additional retail openings. Most recently, Hong Kong’s second Apple Store opened in Kowloon Tong in the Festival Walk shopping center in September. In the summer, we also reported another store is rumored for Hysan Place in Causeway Bay.

Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated China’s importance several times on company earnings calls. Apple will also open a massive data center in Hong Kong, breaking ground in Q1 2013, our sources told us.
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If you missed purchasing an iPhone 5 this weekend, we might have some good news for you. We are hearing Apple expects to launch its in-store product reservation system, Personal Pickup, for iPhone 5 tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern. Customers can use the Apple Store app or website between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. nightly to pre-purchase available iPhone 5 inventory for the next day. Because customers are actually purchasing the iPhone, they will have upwards of two weeks to pick up the phone (when it becomes available).

This certainly seems to be the best way to get your hands on Apple’s newest phone as ship times at Apple.com are still delayed “3-4 weeks”. Demand has been extremely high for this phone, so we recommend logging on to the reservation system as it becomes available.

Update:  It appears Apple’s iPhone 5 Personal Pickup page has been updated ahead of the 10 p.m. launch.  It reaffirms the reservation process which we outlined early this afternoon.  All pre-purchased iPhone 5 units will be available for in-store pickup the next business day and any units not pre-purchased will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nf5-Prx19ZM]

Samsung just released its latest ad mocking iPhone line sitters—right on time for the release of the iPhone 5 this week. The ad is quite similar to its old “The Next Big Thing” Galaxy ads, as it bashes iPhone customers waiting in line at the Apple Store. This commercial is for Samsung’s latest device, of course, the Galaxy S III.

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Yesterday, Gizmodo posted a harrowing piece about one of the most corrupt Apple Stores in the United States. The story profiled many unethical tactics done by the store managers and employees. In one instance, a regional manager actually gave away a free Apple product in exchange for a weight loss surgery, and also leant Apple products out for months at a time. In another case, Apple Store Geniuses would actually take iPhones at their leisure, often breaking them and replacing them. But perhaps the most disconcerting bit from the Gizmodo piece is what Geniuses did to customer’s products. In one instance, a Genius actually  “just erased people’s hard drives that are —holes.” Certainly shocking out of the company that’s already had 300 million visitors in its stores this year.

We weren’t sure how accurate the story was or if the sources had perhaps been embellishing at best and fabricating at worst.  However a separate second source has come forward with a separate but similar story and has named the store in question.
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From 9to5Toys.com:

It appears that Apple is offering $50 off across the board yielding savings of 6-10% depending on the original price.  This is the first time Apple has offered the 3rd generation iPad refurbished at the Apple Store.

Apple’s refurbished iPads get a new battery and encasement and come with the same 1 year warranty as new iPads.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC2YUZPxFOE]

LaCie introduced the RuggedKey this week. It is an IP-54 water and dust resistant USB 3.0 key that provides speeds up to 150 MB/s and a bumper that offers protection from “heat, cold, and 100-meter drops.” The RuggedKey is now available in Apple stores or from the company directly starting at $40 for 16 GB, but LaCie also announced today that it updated its entire USB 3.0 portfolio with optimizations specifically for Apple’s latest lineup of MacBooks. LaCie said it re-engineered its USB 3.0 products for Lion and Mountain Lion by taking advantage of USB-attached SCSI Protocol support in Ivy Bridge Macs:

Thanks to UAS (USB Attached SCSI Protocol), people with the latest Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and Macbook Pro with Retina Display will experience maximum USB 3.0 performance… Everything from cables and USB keys, to professional RAID storage solutions have been re-engineered for advanced performances. LaCie’s recently announced RuggedKey achieves top speeds up to 150MB/s in 32GB of flash memory – making it one of the fastest USB keys on the market. LaCie’s popular Rugged Triple, and Porsche Design P’9223 and P’9233 have also been optimized for Mac and are available in Apple retail.

On top of Apple stores, the redesigned lineup of LaCie USB 3.0 products is available through LaCie stores. The company’s full press release is below:

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As Apple previously announced during its Q3 2012 earnings call yesterday, Mountain Lion is officially available for download in the Mac App Store for $19.99. The download is exclusive to the Mac App Store this year, as we mentioned before, because Apple will not sell the OS via USB sticks or optical discs. The $20 price tag is a $10 drop from Lion, however, and the single purchase will is good for up to five macs via the Mac App Stores purchased apps feature.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnJrkai6Eek]

Unfortunately, for those planning to try Mountain Lion in an Apple retail store before upgrading, we reported last night that some Apple Stores had issues getting the OS on in-store demo Macs. There are also many users reporting error messages when trying to download from Apple’s servers. Before you make the switch to 10.8, you might want to check out the list of compatible Mountain Lion apps to make sure you will not run into any problems.

Apple’s full press release is below:

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We’ve heard a few whispers (3 and counting) that Apple Stores both in the United States and overseas have planned overnights for Tuesday, July 24th. With OS X Mountain Lion launching “in July”, according to Apple, we believe that it is sensible to speculate that this overnight may point to a public launch the following day.

This purported launch would be July 25th, a date that we speculated when Apple announced that its Q3 2012 earnings would be announced on the 24th. For OS X Lion’s launch last year, Apple announced the July 20th release at its July 19th Q3 2011 earnings announcement. It appears that Apple may follow that same pattern this year.

This year, Mountain Lion isn’t being launched alongside hardware (last year new Minis and Airs launched with Lion) so there is less setup required and accordingly, we’re hearing that the overnights will be smaller.  One employee tells us that it is basically just a few guys running around with the master image installing it on every Mac.  Notably, some stores we’ve spoken to haven’t heard of any overnight…yet.

On the other hand, Apple often holds Tuesday overnights, so this July 24th overnight may simply be a coincidence, and Apple may not launch OS X Mountain Lion on the 25th. But, there is already under two weeks left in July, and with last year’s launch pattern prime for repetition (launch announcement during the upcoming earnings call), we’d say a July 25th launch is increasingly likely.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be a $19.99 upgrade which will hit the Mac App Store on launch day.  Developers already have what is likely the Golden Master – build number is 12A269, a 4.34 GB Mac App Store download.

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[tweet https://twitter.com/ifostore/status/223266063452880896]

Apple just announced it will reopen its SoHo store in Manhattan on July 14 at 10 a.m. EST.

The Apple Store, SoHo, is completely redesigned and better than ever. There are more than twice as many products available for you to try. A new state-of-the-art theater with extra seating is the perfect place to enjoy events and workshops. We’ve added New York’s first Briefing Room, where you can get to know our Business Team. Even the Genius Bar is bigger, so it’s easier than ever to get an appointment.

The first 3, 000 customers win free commemorative t-shirts.

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