LOOK: Apple unveils new store design in San Francisco

Apple Inc. unveiled a new vision for its hugely successful retail stores on Thursday, aiming to give shoppers the experience of setting foot in the headquarters of the company credited with inventing the smartphone.

Speaking at a media event in San Francisco on Thursday, Apple executives offered a sneak peak of a new store that features design elements that will later roll out to more locations worldwide, including new spaces for socialization and collaboration.

The makeover follows Apple's first-ever decline in iPhone sales and its first revenue drop in 13 years in an increasingly saturated market.

While the redesign includes plenty of glass, metal and blonde wood – the sleek materials shoppers have come to associate with the company – it also borrows features from Apple's hotly anticipated new headquarters in Silicon Valley, which is set to open early next year.

Like the new campus, the San Francisco store features terrazzo floors, and the ceiling fixtures are also similar, BJ Siegel, Apple's senior director of design for real estate and development, said in an interview.

"We're trying to be one company and have one point of view," he said.

Shoppers who enter the "boardroom" at the San Francisco store, a new space for entrepreneurs and small business owners, will get an idea of the look of Apple’s futuristic headquarters, which is likened to a spaceship for its circular design. Much of the furniture is identical to that Apple employees will find in the new campus, including tables designed in part by Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief design officer.

When working with small business customers, "we want them to feel like they have left the retail environment and entered Apple," Siegel said.

The Apple Store is the envy of many in the retail world, with the highest sales per square foot in the industry, but some say the stores have lost their edge since the first one opened 15 years ago.

With the new design, industry watchers are getting a glimpse of how Apple retail leader Angela Ahrendts, who joined the company two years ago from Burberry, will put her stamp on the store.

Other elements of the new floor plan include a redesigned section for accessories, an open space dubbed the "forum" for community events and a leafy plaza that will be open to the public round the clock.

"We will know we have done really great if it feels like a town square," Ahrendts said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Apple polishes fashion credentials with new hires

NEW YORK - Fashion and technology may not be so different after all, if one looks at the hiring strategy from iPhone maker Apple.

In its latest move, the California tech giant hired Burberry's top executive Angela Ahrendts on Tuesday to become head of retail.

The appointment comes just months after Paul Deneve returned to the US gadget-maker after the Belgian national had stints with fashion houses Courreges, Nina Ricci, Lanvin and Yves Saint-Laurent.

While the tech and fashion industries seem miles apart on the surface, it is not surprising to some analysts to see Apple burnishing its credentials with the kind of brand-building used by luxury goods makers.

"Apple has always been a design house," said Jack Gold, president and analyst with J. Gold Associations.

"They've always excelled at that. They've always had the best design in the marketplace. Not always the best technology, but the best design."

Gold told AFP that the fashion industry lives on "a lot of show, impressions, name, branding" and "that's what Apple continues to excel at in the marketplace better than anyone."

Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research said that hiring people from the luxury goods industry was a way for Apple to spark more demand.

"These people make sure that every consumer that buys an Apple product feels like he got the best product in the world, that every consumer feels special," Chowdhry said.

Ahrendts may give Apple the star power it has lacked since co-founder Steve Jobs died two years ago, and help counter the impression that the company is losing its edge.

Jobs had been the showman for the company showman, with a flair for product launches like the iPhone and iPad. But he also broke new ground earlier in Apple's history with products like the Macintosh computer.

Since Ahrendts became Burberry chief in mid-2006, the British group has doubled revenues and more than tripled its share price.

Ahrendts was last year by far the highest-paid chief executive among the FTSE's 100 top companies last year, with a package totaling £16.9 million ($27 million), according to a survey by pay consultancy MM&K.

"She's a star, she has great vision and her underlying philosophy is the same as that of Steve Jobs," said Robin Lewis, who publishes the retail strategy newsletter The Robin Report.

"Apple created one of the most exciting experience in retail... However, it's getting redundant."

Lewis said Ahrendts has the qualities to be CEO at Apple, a goal she surely has in mind.

Ahrendts has had abundant praise for Apple, telling The Wall Street Journal in 2010, "If I look at any company as a model, it's Apple."

She called Apple is "a brilliant design company working to create a lifestyle," and used that as an inspiration at Burberry.

Sucharita Mulpuru, analyst at Forrester Research, said Apple is undoubtedly paying a high price to get "diva" talent and questioned what this means for Apple's strategy.

One possibility is that Apple wants to be ready for a new trend of "wearable" tech, which could include items ranging from smart watches to jewelry.

Gold said Apple's moves may be "an indicator of the kind of partnerships they might be looking for in the future, less technology oriented partnerships and more fashion oriented partnerships."

Deneve's hiring in July for "special projects" raised speculation about Apple's involvement in wearables, which some say could include fabrics and clothing with embedded electronics.

"The benefit of having fashion mavens on their payroll is that Apple would theoretically have access to fashionistas who would be critical to the adoption of any wearable device," Mulpuru said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com