It turns out that the rumoured ‘secret in-store launch’ that Apple had planned for this weekend was a refresh of the Apple Store experience, something Apple are calling ‘Retail 2.0’.
The weekend of May 21st and 22nd marks the 10th anniversary of Apple’s first ever retail store, which opened in Virginia U.S.A. Rumours have been flying around surrounding what Apple had up their sleeves, and many were right with their estimates of a store layout re-jig.
Apple’s almighty iPad 2 is the star of the show for Retail 2.0, being used to display product details instead of the traditional paper displays you’d find next to display models in store. An iPad 2 is placed next to each iPhone, iPod and Mac in stores and runs a custom WebApp which allows customers to view product info, prices, compare devices and more
Each iPad also offers a “Specialist” tab in the bottom right corner, which alerts store staff to your location in the store (they each carry an iPad 2 which receives the notification).
Each iPad is encased within tough plexiglass to give the appearance that it is part of the desk. You can’t use the iPads as you normally would, as they’re locked into the custom store WebApp, but we’ve discovered that some custom multitouch gestures will unlock the device to the homescreen.
Have you visited an Apple Store recently? If so, what do you think of the changes made in store? Let us know by leaving a comment, or tweet us @Gadget_Helpline.
IMG Source: Leoleakey
Via: Apple Insider