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Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News

Apple Store Galleria

What's the real inside dirt on how Apple runs its equally successful and secretive Apple Stores? The Wall Street Journal claims to be privy to Apple's secret sauce after poring through Apple Store training manuals, a recording of a store meeting, interviews with current and former store employees, and conversations with outside analysts.

In a report published yesterday, the Journal serves up the dish on everything from Apple's store design strategy to the granularity of employee sales training. Some of the information the newspaper dug up is fairly obvious—for; example, Apple doesn't do cookie-cutter designs for its Apple Stores, but rather "constantly evolves its stores' look and feel."

But some of the reported Apple Store skinny touches on areas that may have been guessed at, but have now been apparently confirmed. To wit, current and former Apple Store employees say store techs aren't allowed to "prematurely" acknowledge product glitches that are already widespread, and writing about Apple online will get you fired from an Apple Store.

The Journal also layers in plenty of Apple Store stats—did; you know that more people now visit Apple Stores in a single quarter than went to Disney's four biggest amusement parks last year?

Here's a quick look at some more interesting Apple Store tidbits that the paper either uncovered, confirmed, or highlights in the article.

Click to continue reading Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success


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Apple iPad 2 now in production

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Rumors

The iPad 2 rumors have been going ever since the current iPad hit stores. If you've been looking for something solid though, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the next iPad is currently in production. They say the new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model, and will support Facetime with a camera on the front of the device. Those hoping for a Retina display will be disappointed though, as WSJ is reporting that the resolution of the display won't be changed. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, according to insider sources.

Click to continue reading Apple iPad 2 now in production

Read More | WSJ

WSJ: Apple Tablet to focus on games, TV, music, reading

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, PC / Laptop, Rumors

Apple Tablet

While we await the coming arrival of the fabled Apple tablet, which we all expect to finally arrive at the January 27th Apple event, it appears that the Wall Street Journal has gotten a bit of inside information that offers a glimpse of what the iPad / iSlate will end up doing for us. Of course, we still suggest taking all of this with a grain of salt, but this isn’t far off from the whispers we’ve been hearing either:

  • The Apple tablet will have some sort of virtual keyboard. This only makes sense, because if there’s no physical keyboard, you’d need a virtual one to type on (similar to the iPhone and iPod touch)
  • Publishing firms like Conde Nast, The New York Times, and HarperCollins have been in discussions with Apple on how they can get their content onto the tablet, and new ways of displaying the news on a modern (or even futuristic) device
  • Apple is definitely pondering a switch as it pertains to the default search engine on their iPhone OS, focusing on replacing Google with for search, as well as Maps.
  • They’ve also been in talks with TV networks about the possibility of a multi-show iTunes TV subscription package, where users would get to choose a package of the best 4-6 shows per channel and subscribe for a monthly fee.
  • That whole Lala acquisition by Apple will likely lead to a web-based version of iTunes, which would allow for purchasing music outside of the actual iTunes application. It would also allow for publishers to place buttons that would allow readers to purchase iTunes content right on their website. There may even be a service that would allow users to stream all their iTunes music through the service to other computers, iPhones, and the like. This is basically a merge of iTunes and Lala in its current form.
  • The tablet may have some sort of smart recognition built-in, giving it the ability to recognize the user by using its camera, and then applying settings for that specific user on the fly

There’s a lot there, we know. Luckily, we are just six days away from hearing the word from the horse’s mouth. What do you think? Anything up there sound a little too far-fetched for your tastes? Also, please be sure to vote in our poll letting us know if you’d pre-order the Apple tablet sight unseen.


Steve Jobs to WSJ: App Store rakes in $30 million in first month

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software

App Store downloads

Well, if you were curious just how successful the has been since its launch, Steve Jobs spilled the beans in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal this morning. First and foremost, the most amazing part is that sales in the App Store hit about $30 million. Now, if you think about that figure and realize that only keeps 30% of it (well, 30% of sales of apps that aren’t their own), that is $9 million for Apple, and $21 million for developers.

Of course, a large percentage of apps downloaded are free. You just know those have to be popular, right? Well, we didn’t get an official breakdown of free app downloads versus paid, but Jobs did say that there have been over 60 million downloads from the App Store. That’s an average of 2 million downloads per day, every day. If you had any doubt that the App Store would be a hit, well, there’s your proof.

Click to continue reading Steve Jobs to WSJ: App Store rakes in $30 million in first month


John Moore Unboxing The New Wall Street Journal

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Miscellaneous

This is just Grade-A stuff right here. John Moore decided to unbox the new version of the Wall Street Journal. You know - the one that features a more editorial approach along with a thinner profile? Thank you, John, for this hilarious unboxing video.

Read More | John Moore

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