This is the Genius Bar at Apple's new retail store on West 14th St. in New York. Does Apple have a bright idea for re-creating the interpersonal retail experience in a virtual world?
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)
A patent filing by Apple is prompting speculation that the Mac and iPod maker could be getting ready to open up Apple stores in the virtual realm--perhaps in Second Life.
On Thursday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple titled "Enhancing online shopping atmosphere," filed in September 2006. The PTO's action was first noted by the Mac news site MacNN.
Judging by the patent application, the company apparently is looking to do more than just spruce up its own Apple Online Store. Rather, it seems interested in creating a whole new experience for consumers looking to buy its products via the Web.
In dissecting the application, MacNN picked up on a number of clues that portend a commercial undertaking of the sort that have been popping up in the virtual world Second Life in recent years. And indeed, even a quick reading of the PTO document makes such an assumption quite plausible.
First this, from the Background of the Invention paragraph:
(O)ne drawback of online shopping is that the experience can feel sterile and isolating. Customers in such an environment may be less likely to have positive feelings about the online shopping experience, may be less inclined to engage in the online equivalent of window shopping (e.g., will not linger in front of a display), and may ultimately spend less money than their counterparts who shop in physical stores.And then this, in Detailed Description, after Apple has titled a hypothetical visitor to the online store "Alice":
Other visitors to the site are represented by human shaped icons such as icon 118. Both Alice and one other visitor (118) are currently viewing the main page of the Acme website. They are represented by icons in entryway 120 accordingly. Other visitors are viewing other portions of the website.
People shopping at a site like Amazon.com, Zappos, or Store.apple.com don't get to see others while they're browsing and buying. On Second Life, by contrast, the core experience is all about seeing the avatars of other participants.
And Second Life is no stranger to commercial endeavors or the incursions of high-tech companies such as IBM. It's worth noting again, however, that the Apple patent application was submitted in 2006, during the first wave of corporate interest in what virtual worlds might offer to a profit-minded business.
So do take a deep breath before concluding that this is a done deal. As Wagner James Au says on the GigaOm site--while also noting that "when a Second Life user built an unofficial Apple Store last year, it generated tremendous buzz (as the 270K views of this YouTube video suggest.)":
So does this mean Steve Jobs is going to show off his avatar in a virtual Apple store at the next big Mac show? Possibly, but even with my pronounced Second Life bias, I'm more than a touch skeptical. Companies file all kinds of patents that go unused, as a way of preemptively staking out territory.
Zombie computer shopping
(Credit: Declan McCullagh)This just in: zombies overrun just about everywhere. Videos and other documentation of the brain-eating reanimated corpses are flooding the Web.
Once upon a time, the invasion was contained within the confines of Hollywood and, uh, Haiti. Now they've spread to other places. They're drinking Bloody Marys in Manhattan, Toronto, and all over the civilized world.
Mobs of the recently undemised are involved in politics and technology in the Bay Area and practicing yoga in Brooklyn. Undead legions are staggering through Second Life, playing Halo 3, and getting recruited for innumerable other games.
You already know about another kind of zombie--compromised computers--in IT security, but you might not know that a "zombie" in the investing world is a company actively doing business in spite of bankruptcy. Of course, we've had this kind of zombie in Silicon Valley for years now.
Happy Day of the (un)Dead!
Here, kitty kitty kitty! Rain-soaked Apple nerds wait for Leopard.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)NEW YORK--On Friday afternoon at the hour that Apple launched its latest operating system, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, it was pouring rain in Manhattan. It was also windy and chilly. That didn't stop several hundred people from lining up outside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue to get their hands on the new software, huddled underneath Gore-Tex jackets and umbrellas.
"It's the cult," commented another reporter who had also been covering the water-saturated event.
The line for Leopard appeared to be divided fairly evenly between rabid Apple fans and shoppers who'd figured they could stop by and pick it up quickly--and indeed, come launch time, the line moved fast as customers were ushered into a gauntlet of Apple Store employees (much like the iPhone launch in June) and directed straight to the cash registers when the doors opened at 6 p.m.
"It's a happening," said first-in-liner Bob Greenlees, a twenty-something student at the nearby Cardozo School of Law, when I asked him why he'd bothered to wait amidst inclement weather for an operating system that could easily have been pre-ordered online and delivered to his front door. "It's one of those things. It's Apple, it's Fifth Avenue, it's a flagship store. And it's an opportunity to be in line for something without waiting for three days."
Greenlees, after posing for a photo with his new purchase, said that he was going to go straight home and install it. He'd been in line since about 2:30 p.m.
The line went to the corner and around the block to the intersection of 58th Street and Madison Avenue.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)"I came for the free t-shirt," said Steven Miranda, a Manhattan College student who was ninth in line. The Apple Store was offering t-shirts to the first 500 people who showed up, and for hardcore Apple fans, those shirts were a coveted prize. I asked Miranda and his friends whether they agreed with Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg's assertion that Leopard was "evolutionary, not revolutionary."
"Compared to Vista, it's revolutionary!" chimed in one Apple fan who was just ahead of Miranda in line. Indeed, the Microsoft-taunting was hardly under the radar. One person in line was wearing a t-shirt that bore the Windows logo along with the caption "Hasta la Vista."
For the two hours prior to the Leopard launch, the normally 24/7 Fifth Avenue store had been closed in preparation--my personal theory is Apple closed the store for a longer span of time than it needed to, to assure that an adequate queue would form in anticipation, but I'm sure Apple's not about to confirm that to me.
In addition to Leopard t-shirts, buyers were also treated to free umbrellas as they were ushered into the store. Nice move, Apple. "Keep the Leopard dry!" an Apple Store employee shouted. "Cats don't like water!"
But that raises a very serious question. Now that Apple has let Leopard out of its cage, following in the tracks of Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger, the big question is--which cat's next?
My money's on Ocelot.
NEW YORK--At about 1 p.m. EDT in midtown Manhattan, I overheard a group of suit-clad thirtysomething men talking as they waited to cross Madison Avenue.
"You know, leopards are solitary animals," one of them said. The other three or four continued musing on the characteristics of the large exotic felines, and I figured that it was actually part of a conversation about Apple's latest operating system, which launches Friday at 6 p.m. I thought, wow, if fratty midtown office types are talking about Mac OS X 10.5, there must be a huge line of fanboys at the Apple store!
Wrong. There was almost no sign of a major product launch at the 24-hour Apple store on Fifth Avenue, besides a few signs and posters announcing Leopard's advent. The store was still a mob scene, of course--in that touristy shopping district just south of Central Park, it always is. But there was no buzz factor like there had been with the crazy iPhone launch in June.
Apple Store customers try out Leopard at the Fifth Avenue store in NYC.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)Apple retail employees told reporters that the store would be closed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for preparations, and that when the doors finally opened, there would be "demos all night long."
For an idea of what the scene might be like, they told the press to look up the Japanese launch of Leopard the previous night, which apparently had eager buyers lined up around the block. Then, clearly uncomfortable about saying too much, they said to contact company public-relations representatives instead and encouraged the press to test out the new operating system--it was already installed on all the demo computers at the store.
A few minutes later, reporters were informed that Apple retail employees had just been told not to speak to the press any more, until Leopard's launch at 6 p.m.
Meow.
One of the things talked about most in the aftermath of the iPhone's New York debut was how streamlined the launch was. A gauntlet of Apple store employees kept everyone in a single file, and upon entering the Apple store customers were ushered directly to the checkout line where they received (and paid for) their iPhones. The press, however, was not so calm--seriously, I felt like I was taping something that would wind up on TMZ or Perez Hilton.
At last count, there was no shortage of iPhones, and many of the people who happened to walk into line around 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. didn't have a problem just waltzing in. As one guy put it, strolling out of the store at 7:15 p.m., a black iPhone bag in hand, "This is f***ing great!"
Yeah baby!
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)The first New Yorkers have their iPhones, showing off the sleek black packages to a massive crowd of paparazzi-esque press (really, we're animals), Apple Store employees, and a large number of spectators. Yes, spectators. Stadium-style. Yes, David Pogue is still hanging around, taping the scene with a personal camcorder but largely avoiding the sweaty press mobs. No, there is no sign of Steve Jobs, Bono, John Mayer, or any other celebrities associated with Apple.
There is not yet any word on shortages or the lack thereof. It's 6:26 PM and they are still letting people in, so I'm not positive as to how long it'll keep going on.
UPDATE (6:33 PM EDT): There do not yet appear to be any iPhones listed on eBay.
UPDATE (6:49 PM EDT): Still no end in sight. Just called out to the guys at the head of the line, who speculate they were at position #500-550 in line. Does this mean the "only 400 iPhones at the 5th Avenue store" rumor was bunk?
UPDATE (6:55 PM EDT): They're still flooding in. Now we're down to people who didn't wait in line for very long; most of them are 20-somethings who look like they stepped right out of a dancing iPod ad (minus the silhouette). Some even still have earbuds plugged into their ears as they walk in.
UPDATE (7:01 PM EDT): The line is largely over and people are just walking in now. Press is now allowed in. An iPhone reportedly just sold on eBay for $1500.
UPDATE (7:39 PM EDT): Line of the night: I'm carrying my open MacBook down the spiral staircase of the Apple Store when a company employee calls out to me, "No blogging on the stairs! You'll hurt yourself!"
Continuing my series of unedited, incoherent clips from the iPhone launch in NYC that were taped with a pocket-size Canon point-and-shoot, here is a little clip of the most popular person on the block (the Starbucks employee handing out free coffee) and the second most popular person on the block (New York Times tech columnist David Pogue, talking to fans).
Also being handed out: Evian water and Godiva chocolate. This liveblogger is happy!
There's just over an hour to go until the iPhone launch, and I got up on a stepladder (precarious, considering the crowds that could knock you off at any second) in order to survey the scene. Nothing particularly chaotic, but yeah, it's a lot of people.
The guy in line next to where I'm sitting is on his cell phone, telling a friend that "it's crazy...it's absolutely crazy." He got here about 6 AM today and is at position #110 in line.
People are starting to buzz on whether or not Steve Jobs might show up: there has been no concrete evidence whatsoever, but people have been suggesting that it would likely be a great photo op. The 5th Avenue store is a serious landmark for Apple-heads, and from what we've been hearing, the NYC lines have eclipsed San Francisco's. Anybody heard any more juicy rumors as to where Mr. Jobs might be this afternoon?
UPDATE (5:11 PM EDT): A friend of mine on Twitter reports from the West Side that there's a longer line streaming out of trendy gelato hub Grom than out of the nearby AT&T store.
Apple squeezes the front of the line to save space
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)At last count, the line for the iPhone at the 5th Avenue Apple store in Manhattan was approaching a full city block's perimeter in length. As a result, it looks like the security folks have asked the people at the front of the line to pack in a little more, stop reclining in their tents and chairs, and squeeze up closer. Pedestrian traffic has also been "rerouted" so that passers-by are off the sidewalk, leaving it clear for press and Apple fanatics.
Special thanks to the photo editing guys who lent me a power outlet on their generator when I was having battery issues on my Mac! Ironically, this might be the only time when the Genius Bar is closed...by the way, I haven't seen this many photographers since the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival. Also, the front of the line smells really funny...hmmmm, wonder why?
Two hours to go!
UPDATE (4:07 PM ET): A tipster tells us that despite being rather sleepy before, things may be picking up at the iPhone line scene at AT&T stores. At the AT&T store across from the Chrysler Building in midtown, the line's apparently down the block by now.
Check out my grainy little video--that's the iPhone line in midtown Manhattan. Can you believe that there's apparently barely anyone waiting at the city's AT&T stores?
It's a madhouse here! There are even more TV crews, reporters, and gawking passers-by at the 5th Avenue Apple store in Manhattan for the iPhone launch in fewer than three hours. The sun's out, and it's not too hot, but still decently uncomfortable. I don't have an estimate on how many people are in line, but it stretches from the steps in front of the Apple store down to the corner of 58th St. and 5th Avenue, around the corner to 58th St. and down to Madison Avenue, around that corner to Madison and 59th, and now ends midway between Madison and 5th on 59th St. (I'm not good with providing directions. Look at the map instead.)
The iPhone line, as of 3 PM, plotted on a Google Map
(Credit: Google Maps)The product placements continue: soda company Izze has been handing out apple-flavored drinks, Wired magazine has been distributing issues, a company called Lifetime Products has brought extra chairs, and Prizebook.com has given out t-shirts and food to the people at the front of the line. Apple is providing bottles of Smart Water, as they have been for the past few days. Luxury toy retailer FAO Schwartz, across the plaza from the Apple store, has given balloons to people at the back of the line and gift bags to people at the front.
Apple store employees are currently at the front of the line leading people in cheers. "When I say 'i,' you say 'phone'!" I'm not kidding.
