Sunday Morning at the Boylston Street Apple Store

I'm not one fore crowds, that's why I passed on the grand opening of Apple's largest US store last Thursday. So, I decided to head on over this morning. And what a beautiful morning it was!

My buddy Jerry and I got there early because we thought the store hours were 8 AM to 11 PM, 7 days a week. That's true, except for Sundays, when they open up at 9 AM. So we took advantage of the time, went to Starbucks, and snapped off a couple of pictures of the store front. The facade is incredible, as it appears to be floating, suspended by several massive laminated glass beams that extend to the top of the building and over.

We walked around the corner to check out Tech Superstore. They were tucked away in typical Newbury Street style, they're obviously not the early birds that Apple is. If you recall a previous post, the founder and President of Tech, Michael Oh, was the guy who planted the T-shirt under the Apple Store foundation, and chronicled the building of the store on his blog Birth of an Apple Store, using time-lapsed photography.


So after we finished our Grandes the store was about to open, so we positioned ourselves in front of the doors to make sure we were the first ones to enter. A crowd started to form rather quickly gathering behind us. Upon entering the store, you are overwhelmed with this incredible glass column wrapped DNA style with a magnificent spiral glass staircase.

I went over to the stair case and peered straight up to the sky. I'm told that the roof has as lawn and garden. We weren't permitted to go up there just yet, maybe next time.

So, the first floor was all Macs. On the right were the desktops, in power order. First the Mac Minis, then the iMacs, and in the back of the store was the big iron, the Mac Pros. As you followed around to the left, there were the laptops, lined up in descending power order, from the 17 inch MacBook Pro in the back corner to the MacBooks near the front of the store. On the second floor are the iPods and iPhones flanked the sides, with every conceivable accessory for Macs, iPods and iPhones along the back.

On the third floor was the Genius Bar, one-on-one stations, software and books. There's an elevator next to the Genius bar so you don't have to haul your Mac up the stairs. Boy, these guys think of everything.

I snapped this picture of the floating Apple logo, and caught the entrance to the Prudential Center across the street. We spent a fair amount of time speaking with the employees and managers, and marveled at the simplicity and elegance of the store layout. Well, that was that, both Jerry and I had to leave prematurely, because we both had Sunday morning kids sporting events to attend. It was one of the few times I have left a Mac store empty handed.

Tech Superpowers Buries Treasure Under Apple Store

I reported earlier this week about Apple's largest store to date, will be opening this Thursday at 6 PM, on Boylston Street in Boston. There's been a lot of speculation about what else might be announced along side the opening. Some wondered if the new 3G iPhone might be launched. Fat chance, considering the opportunity that would be lost for Steve Jobs to mesmerize the media at the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in June.

But this story just came across Andy Ihnatko's Twitter stream (I received it on my iPhone). Apparently a neighbor of the new Apple Store, the long-time resident business, Tech Superpower Store's founder and President Michael Oh, says that he buried one of his company's T-shirts under the concrete of the Apple store. This all happened about the same time the construction worker buried the David Ortiz shirt under the new Yankee Stadium. If you're a Red Sox fan like me (have been since my first breath), then you can appreciate the gesture.

"We're doing it with a wink ... We are in business because of the great things Apple has done ... This T-shirt in the sidewalk is a symbol that there's a connection between the two sides of the alley."

Michael is the one who took the time-lapsed photography of the store's construction progress and published on the Birth of an Apple Store blog. I wonder if Big Papi is a Mac user?

Store Opening Update - Thursday, May 15 @ 9:45 AM EST

The new Boston Apple Store has been revealed to special guests and the Boston Globe. The green Monster facade has been removed to reveal a glass front!

The first three floors are retail, with a spiral glass staircase that ascends to the third-level "Genius Bar". macs are on the first floor, iPods are on the second.

Yesterday Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President of Apple Retail was there to speak to guests, including Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino, and the media. I also heard a rumor that Steve Jobs was in town. Although there's no confirmation of this.

Apple Store Boylston Street, Boston Opening This Week

Apple published that the store will open this Thursday at 6 PM. I've been following the construction since last year through timelapsed photography on the Birth of an Apple Store blog. This is Apple's biggest store in the United States with roughly 20,000 square feet of space. I don't think that's all retail space though. The facade is a replica of Fenway Park's Green Monster! The store is located across the street from one of Boston's landmark buildings, the Prudential.

Apple had originally considered keeping the store open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you know Boston, that would not have been practical, as the sidewalks get rolled up around 11 PM. So that distinction will stay unique to the New York City 5th Avenue Store. Instead, it will be open from 8 AM till 11 PM, 7 days a week. So, when my home store in the Braintree South Shore Plaza is closed, I can get my Sunday morning fix with a trip into the Hub of the Universe.

Safari on Windows Market Share Exploding

Riding on the tails of iTunes and iPhones, Apple’s Internet browser called Safari has tripled its market share on Windows. Ever since Apple slipped Safari under the radar of unsuspecting Windows users, back on March 18th, Safari on Windows has tripled.

If you own an iPod, iTouch or iPhone, but don’t own a Mac, there’s little doubt that you have iTunes installed on your Windows PC. You need iTunes to register your iPhone, and all iPods, would be nothing more than pretty mp3 players without it.

And as a Windows user with iTunes, you’ve become accustomed to Apple’s Software Update program popping up every once in a while informing you of important updates to iTunes and the underlying media player QuickTime. So, you would dutifully click OK, and let the updater do its good work, installing new features, bug fixes, and security updates. This time, the Safari browser was included in the mix.

This little stunt was clouded in controversy at the time, as many Windows hawks called this unethical and tantamount to installing a Trojan horse or virus. Of course these claims are absurd, but Windows users, who are regularly plagued with maladies like viruses and Phishing software, are particularly sensitive to such things. Unlike Mac users, who have no idea what the problem is, because we don’t get viruses and all that other bad stuff.

Apple listened to the complaints, even from Mozilla Foundation's CEO John Lilly in his blog, but they didn’t remove Safari from the updater. Instead, they made it easy for the user to choose to remove Safari in the update. It’s widely thought that most of the people that complained were either Microsoft sycophants or Firefox groupies.

The stunt has apparently paid off in a big way. People are checking out Safari as an alternative to their Firefox browser and Internet Explorer, and they like it, a lot. It’s no wonder, with Apple’s legendary flair for making their products attractive and easy to use. As it turns out, Safari simply provides a much better user experience than the other browsers. Can Safari eclipse Firefox as the Windows alternative to Internet Explorer? I think so, as Apple slowly penetrates the non-Mac user ethos, and infects them with a viral movement

ZACH BASS - Apple News Shorts

Apple Inc vs The Big Apple
According to Apple, the logo that the New York City's GreenNYC Campaign has chosen is too similar to Apple's logo, and says stop it or else. The nonprofit tourism and marketing office is obviously playing off the "Big Apple" nickname for NYC. But Apple won't have it saying it infringes on their trademark, and has filed a formal oposition (.pdf). The logo is a stylized Apple with a stem and leaf that morphs from an infinity symbol.

Coffee break, should we go to Starbucks or McDonalds?
Could you have imagined seriously considering that choice in years past, please! BloggingStocks.com reports that McDonalds is going upscale with lower prices and designer coffee. They are also refurbing stores with mock-Starbucks furniture and Wifi. Sure, a Grande at Starbucks will set you back four bucks, but they've got iTunes and free Wifi. Decisions, decisions.

iTunes is Now Top Dog in US for ALL Music Retail
Apple surpassed WalMart recently as the number one retailer of music, period. That means iTunes sells more music than WalMart's brick and mortar and online retail combined! But Apple can't sit on their laurels. The number one social network, News Corp's MySpace just announced a new online music venture with three top labels. It was just this past February that iTunes sped past Target and Best Buy to become the number two retailer. Seems only yesterday that Amazon was gonna clean Apple's clock with DRM-free music at bargain basement prices. Does Apple have any weaknesses?

Hey RIM, Modonna or Apple?

RIM posted great numbers and guidance in their quarterly earnings conference call last night. Seems corporate America can't get enough of the device. But it's not just an enterprise tool anymore, seems everyone has one, as there are at least 14 million of the handsets out there.

But what's responsible for this breakout success? It seems to be a growing obsession, from the soccer field where I see moms that can barely lift their eyes from their Crackberries to watch their kids as they frantically attend to their email, to Madonna who, "sleeps with her BlackBerry" under her pillow, just in case she "remembers something during the night," as reported by the BBC.

I think that Apple deserves some of the credit as well. We've all hear of the halo effect that the iPod has had on Mac sales, well I believe the iPhone has had that same affect on the Blackberry. When people decide which smart phone to get, they aren't even considering the Razor, Treo or Nokia E90 anymore, it's either the iPhone or the Blackberry.

The iPhone has has made it a two phone race, and it's catching up quick. Soon it will overtake the Treo in the number three spot, and if the prediction by Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray are correct, looks like it will have the number one spot by the end of 2009.

So RIM, you owe Apple a bit of gratitude, unfortunately for you it looks like that gratitude will become envy.

-zach bass