Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been slowly redesigning its stores worldwide, and the latest one will be opening to the public this weekend in San Francisco. The new design comes with a giant screen in the store worth $1.5 million, which according to some media, will be in each important and redesigned store worldwide.
The store, mostly surrounded by glass walls and doors, was showed in a preview in San Francisco on Thursday. About 20 percent of it is dedicated to an open Forum area where visitors can learn about the company’s products, as reported by USA Today.
“This is the next generation of Apple retail,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online operations. “We are not just evolving our store design, but its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs.”
According to Ahrendts, former Burberry CEO, fifteen years ago on this same day, Apple opened its first two stores, and they are thrilled to mark the occasion with the opening on Apple Union Square in San Francisco.
The building that holds the soon-to-be open store is just blocks away from the old Apple Store in downtown San Francisco, which will be permanently closed this Friday while the new one will be open on Saturday morning.
Live from the new redesigned Apple Store in San Francisco https://t.co/QHDq5P2eX6 pic.twitter.com/PXkYi6mQGP
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) May 19, 2016
San Francisco’s store was designed by architect Norman Foster’s firm, Foster + Partners, the one responsible for Apple’s new Westlake store in Hangzhou, China, and Apple’s new California headquarters dubbed the “Spaceship.”
However, the new stores are the result of the collaborative creative efforts of Ahrendts and Apple’s longtime design chief, Jony Ive. Other stores with the new innovative design are in Brussels, Belgium, Memphis, Tennessee, and Guilderland, New York.
What is new in the design?
The design is inspired by a town square, where people gather and socialize. The store includes an “avenue” with long tables and little-specialized shops by sections that simulate the place. There is a boardroom, where small business can learn about the products and opportunities and a “Genius Grove,” a replacement for the previous Genius Bar.
As for the Genius Grove, this will be a forum where some specialized employees give classes about photography and other sessions. In addition, some of the most significant stores will have a public Plaza open 24/7 with free WiFi. This place will hold occasional concerts and other performances.
The video wall
One of the most outstanding features in the stores will be a giant video wall, with ultra-high resolution. It would display important content about Apple’s products in the center of the most important and redesigned stores.
According to 9to5Mac, the Artificial Intelligence’s technology is not of public knowledge, as creators did not provide the source or any technical information about the resources used on it. However, one of the design’s creator, Jony Ive, stated that each piece was worth $1.5 million.
Source: Business Insider