The New Yorker recently ran an exhaustive report of Apple design supremo, Jony Ive. If you’re even only marginally interested in the Cupertino fruit or just design in general, we highly recommend checking it out.
One of the many interesting revelations in the 16,000-word profile was the news that Ive and retail head Angela Ahrendts are working together on a redesign of Apple’s retail stores — a different approach that will make them better suited for selling the fashionable Apple Watch. The as-yet unannounced redesign of the stores intends to make them “a more natural setting for vitrines filled with gold (and perhaps less welcoming, at least in some corners, to tourists and truants),” author Ian Parker writes. He refers to the Apple Watch section of the store as a potential “V.I.P. area,” though it’s unclear just how much different Ahrendts and Ive believe the stores need to be.
We already knew there were some changes coming to Apple stores ahead of the Apple Watch’s launch. Earlier this month, it was reported that they will have custom-designed safes for storing the 18K gold devices. These safes will have chargers inside to ensure the watches remain powered-up at all times. Apple is also working on special weight scales for measuring the Apple Watch. This is to stop customers buying the device, secretly removing or replacing the gold, and then returning it to the store after selling the precious metal on.
Ahrendts is also planning to overhaul Apple’s Genius Bar in-store troubleshooting service with a new prioritising system. From March 9, Apple will be launching a new initiative called “Concierge” in its US stores, which will replace the current Genius Bar appointment system. According to 9to5Mac, this new system will do away with the whole appointment set-up altogether. Rather, a customer will simply be able to walk into an Apple Store and describe their problem. The App Store employee will then tap this issue into their iPad, and a special algorithm will assign the issue a wait time based on the nature of the issue.
The details reaffirm a separate report from earlier this month, which said that Ahrendts is spearheading major physical changes for Apple’s retail stores. Some changes, such as new seating areas, are expected to be implemented before the launch of the Apple Watch in April.
Ahrendts is the former chief executive of the fashion giant Burberry who was hired in 2013 to focus on “the customer experience.”
