Companies using this kind of interactive electronic helper can also collect and analyze data about their customers' questions and interests, and adjust their businesses accordingly. It is hard to do that with a paper sign, even with the help of human salespeople.
Edit: I missed the post by Tokolosh, saying about the same thing. Hate when that happens.
It's interesting. The iPad has become a replacement for the traditional kiosk. Those manufacturers should be the next to worry about being pushed out of business.
Out in California's department stores, the makeup counters show prospective customers how to apply makeup. Different colors go on digital faces. With iPad2, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't take your photo and do a digital make-over.
What a good idea. It seems like an app could be developed to let people do this from the privacy of their homes and order the makeup online. Inside stores the biggest problem would probably be preventing one person from bogarting the device for hours at a time.
While I'll admit my poor first experience with the new apple iPad displays may have simply been the result of shopping in New Jersey, i found the level of help down right poor.
Usually when walking into an apple store by simply grabbing the first smiling blue shirted buddy one can get a very devoted companion all the way through the purchase. Instead, when I asked for help from the nearest available employee I was directed to the iPad display where he insisted on clicking the "talk with a specialist" button and was then told to wait patiently next to the iPad. Not exactly a good first impression with this new method.
[QUOTE=AppleInsider;1868455]Apple's new interactive iPad 2 displays will not only create interest and generate sales for the touchscreen tablet, but they will also save the company money in the long run, one analyst believes.
Slightly off topic, I know.
Couldn't help but notice, as I read the headlines, that you used the phrase, "Apple Store" a couple of times. Did I miss something? Did Apple lose or abandon its legal defense of the name, "AppStore?"
They're a little confusing. It's not readily apparent that you can touch the little "feature" pictures on the device to bring up more information. No indication that the little "Core i7" photo is actually a button.
And the iPad table is swamped with the things, one for each iPad. Hard to tell which one is the display, and which one is the product on display. (grin)
I find your comment surprising and confusing. Do you have an iPad? It is a "touch" device after all. Being an intuitive device, it would be natural or instinctive to touch an image and expect it may or may not likely be a link to more information. As I can see, it is no different than touching an image link when using Safari on the iPad. If you touch an image and nothing happens, then it wasn't meant to be a link. Very simple.
Also, from what I observe from articles I've read this morning, the iPad "sales" device is incased in plastic and sits stationary in landscape view.
Usually when walking into an apple store by simply grabbing the first smiling blue shirted buddy one can get a very devoted companion all the way through the purchase. Instead, when I asked for help from the nearest available employee I was directed to the iPad display where he insisted on clicking the "talk with a specialist" button and was then told to wait patiently next to the iPad. Not exactly a good first impression with this new method.
Hmm... this was my very first concern when I saw that speciaist button. I know what you're talking about and I'll be very dissappointed to lose my dedicated blue shirted buddy.
Couldn't help but notice, as I read the headlines, that you used the phrase, "Apple Store" a couple of times. Did I miss something? Did Apple lose or abandon its legal defense of the name, "AppStore?"
The Apple Store and the App Store are two different things.
They're a little confusing. It's not readily apparent that you can touch the little "feature" pictures on the device to bring up more information. No indication that the little "Core i7" photo is actually a button.
I can see how that might be true right now, but I think it?s very temporary issue. Consider the desktop mouse. Once Macs shipped with a booklet describing the functionality and how to use the mouse but that simply hasn?t been needed for decades.
As busy as Apple Stores are it seems likely that someone will see another customer or employee using the kioskelle and then use it themselves after they are finished.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KrakaJap
Still seems like a waste to me. iPads being used as nothing more than a glamorous price tag?
They are a lot more interactive than you think. Read the previous articles on them.
Quote:
Using 1st gen iPads would have made more sense; there's just far too much wasted potential here any way you slice it.
I don?t see how.
What iPads are hard to come by? Perhaps these are rejects that Apple couldn?t sell but still good enough to be plugged in and used and interactive displays. Do these iPads connect to the Apple Store via WiFi or via the 30-pin connector? I don?t think these are 64GB iPad 2s that Apple decided it didn?t want to make $700 on.
This provides a useful template for many more businesses, who may have been considering
iPads but needed a little nudge from Apple.
Yes. Bottom line, retail and other businesses need to be shown the way, and as it happens, Apple has a business it can field test its products on. As Warren Buffet says, they eat their own dog food, except in this case it definitely results (or should result) in a superior product.
This is only another multimillion dollar line of potential new business for Apple, and a sea change in how retail (at least) business is done. That's all.
Apple should twist the arm of their ad agency as well, to find new ways of incorporating the iPad in their business, and developing software for them. (I don't think they'd have to twist TOO hard.)
Almost certainly NOT a customer hardware configuration. The cost of added a configuration management for, say, 15,000 units plus replacements would more than overwhelm and marginal cost savings is parts. These units cost Apple ~ $325 ea. Even assuming your $100 ea which I think would be low, at $225 ea savings that's only $3.4 million savings world-wide. Would not begin to cover the cost of managing a supply chain change to implement the major changes your talking about.
Agreed! When the iPad3 comes out all these units are destined for refurbishment and sale. Again, reducing Apple's initial investment!
Still seems like a waste to me. iPads being used as nothing more than a glamorous price tag? And not to mention during a high demand beginning of the iPad 2 life cycle? Imagine walking into an Apple Store wanting to buy an iPad 2 only to be turned away for a couple weeks and having to walk past all those iPad 2s being used to give you a price, details, and comparisons. I, for one, would be rather annoyed. Using 1st gen iPads would have made more sense; there's just far too much wasted potential here any way you slice it.
I sympathize with you, my friend. It must be hell going through life with that huge 'cloud of negativity' hanging over your head, blocking out the sun. Imagine a life where every day is dull and dreary .... must really get you down. I'd explain to you 'what a sunny day feels like' ..... but how do you explain an airplane to a fish? sigh! \
I've seen iPads in many high-end restaurants in Manhattan, as well as a couple in southern Connecticut. It's almost always the wine list they use the iPad for. I love mine, but this seems like overkill. Maybe not...but it definitely surprised me the first few times. After that I just shrugged. I'll admit it does make finding wine a bit easier, and the waiter doesn't have to stand there to tell you about each bottle. We always end up asking him anyway, but maybe it has cut their costs. Or maybe it's trendy. We'll see. I checked for angry birds one time and...no dice.
It also means that the last bottle you spent time on deciding over hasn't been snapped up by another table, prompting the waiter to return with the bad news and beginning the selection process all over again.
iPad's and iPod touches with custom Apps, linked to a backend hosted on a Lion based OSX server running on a Mini, MacBook or iMac could present an all in one solution for small to medium businesses at a fairly low TCO, when you consider all the things that could be replaced.
I bet this was pretty inexpensive for Apple to do, as well. Compared to the retail iPad, there are probably no cameras, no speakers, no battery, a smaller hd, possibly less RAM (only the one app to run at a time), plus obviously no retail markup... I'm thinking these cost Apple about $100 each...
???
They are regular iPad 2's as explained in the article, not a different, specially made iPad.
It's interesting. The iPad has become a replacement for the traditional kiosk. Those manufacturers should be the next to worry about being pushed out of business.
Not necessarily. Good businesses learn to evolve with changing technology. A kiosk is just a PC inside a cabinet. Kiosk-makers could redesign their kiosks around iPads. But, a 10-inch screen is kinda small-ish for kiosk purposes, I think. Which is to say that they're fine for input and basic information?most ATM screens are about that size. But for real interactivity and information density?say, a children's museum, or any museum, for that matter?you'd want a touch device with a larger screen. If or when iMacs go full-multi-touch*, is when kiosk makers should sit up and take notice.
Hmmm... Come to think of it, kiosk-makers could pair an iMac and iPad together, using the iPad as the input device and the iMac as the information device.
* Lion appears to be an intermediate step towards an OS version that supports full-screen multi-touch, as well as traditional cursor-based input**.
** The mouse & trackpad are not going away anytime soon.
Still seems like a waste to me. iPads being used as nothing more than a glamorous price tag? And not to mention during a high demand beginning of the iPad 2 life cycle? Imagine walking into an Apple Store wanting to buy an iPad 2 only to be turned away for a couple weeks and having to walk past all those iPad 2s being used to give you a price, details, and comparisons. I, for one, would be rather annoyed. Using 1st gen iPads would have made more sense; there's just far too much wasted potential here any way you slice it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by newbee
I sympathize with you, my friend. It must be hell going through life with that huge 'cloud of negativity' hanging over your head, blocking out the sun. Imagine a life where every day is dull and dreary .... must really get you down. I'd explain to you 'what a sunny day feels like' ..... but how do you explain an airplane to a fish? sigh! \
Quote:
JOE BTFSPLK is very simply the world's biggest jinx. He walks around with a perpetually dark rain cloud a foot over his head. Once he appears on any scene, dreadfully bad luck befalls anyone in his vicinity.
Though well-meaning and gentle, his reputation inevitably precedes him, so Joe is a very lonely and feared little man.
He is also a character with an apparently unpronounceable name, but creator Al Capp pronounced Btfsplk with a "raspberries" sound, also known as a "Bronx cheer."
Comments
My question is what will they do with these when the next gen iPad comes out? Keep them or replace them?
Edit: I missed the post by Tokolosh, saying about the same thing. Hate when that happens.
Out in California's department stores, the makeup counters show prospective customers how to apply makeup. Different colors go on digital faces. With iPad2, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't take your photo and do a digital make-over.
What a good idea. It seems like an app could be developed to let people do this from the privacy of their homes and order the makeup online. Inside stores the biggest problem would probably be preventing one person from bogarting the device for hours at a time.
Usually when walking into an apple store by simply grabbing the first smiling blue shirted buddy one can get a very devoted companion all the way through the purchase. Instead, when I asked for help from the nearest available employee I was directed to the iPad display where he insisted on clicking the "talk with a specialist" button and was then told to wait patiently next to the iPad. Not exactly a good first impression with this new method.
Slightly off topic, I know.
Couldn't help but notice, as I read the headlines, that you used the phrase, "Apple Store" a couple of times. Did I miss something? Did Apple lose or abandon its legal defense of the name, "AppStore?"
Square Seeks to Revolutionize Retail Sales With 'Square Register' for iPad and 'Card Case'
They're a little confusing. It's not readily apparent that you can touch the little "feature" pictures on the device to bring up more information. No indication that the little "Core i7" photo is actually a button.
And the iPad table is swamped with the things, one for each iPad. Hard to tell which one is the display, and which one is the product on display. (grin)
I find your comment surprising and confusing. Do you have an iPad? It is a "touch" device after all. Being an intuitive device, it would be natural or instinctive to touch an image and expect it may or may not likely be a link to more information. As I can see, it is no different than touching an image link when using Safari on the iPad. If you touch an image and nothing happens, then it wasn't meant to be a link. Very simple.
Also, from what I observe from articles I've read this morning, the iPad "sales" device is incased in plastic and sits stationary in landscape view.
Confusing? Really?
Usually when walking into an apple store by simply grabbing the first smiling blue shirted buddy one can get a very devoted companion all the way through the purchase. Instead, when I asked for help from the nearest available employee I was directed to the iPad display where he insisted on clicking the "talk with a specialist" button and was then told to wait patiently next to the iPad. Not exactly a good first impression with this new method.
Hmm... this was my very first concern when I saw that speciaist button. I know what you're talking about and I'll be very dissappointed to lose my dedicated blue shirted buddy.
Couldn't help but notice, as I read the headlines, that you used the phrase, "Apple Store" a couple of times. Did I miss something? Did Apple lose or abandon its legal defense of the name, "AppStore?"
The Apple Store and the App Store are two different things.
They're a little confusing. It's not readily apparent that you can touch the little "feature" pictures on the device to bring up more information. No indication that the little "Core i7" photo is actually a button.
I can see how that might be true right now, but I think it?s very temporary issue. Consider the desktop mouse. Once Macs shipped with a booklet describing the functionality and how to use the mouse but that simply hasn?t been needed for decades.
As busy as Apple Stores are it seems likely that someone will see another customer or employee using the kioskelle and then use it themselves after they are finished.
Still seems like a waste to me. iPads being used as nothing more than a glamorous price tag?
They are a lot more interactive than you think. Read the previous articles on them.
Using 1st gen iPads would have made more sense; there's just far too much wasted potential here any way you slice it.
I don?t see how.
What iPads are hard to come by? Perhaps these are rejects that Apple couldn?t sell but still good enough to be plugged in and used and interactive displays. Do these iPads connect to the Apple Store via WiFi or via the 30-pin connector? I don?t think these are 64GB iPad 2s that Apple decided it didn?t want to make $700 on.
This provides a useful template for many more businesses, who may have been considering
iPads but needed a little nudge from Apple.
Yes. Bottom line, retail and other businesses need to be shown the way, and as it happens, Apple has a business it can field test its products on. As Warren Buffet says, they eat their own dog food, except in this case it definitely results (or should result) in a superior product.
This is only another multimillion dollar line of potential new business for Apple, and a sea change in how retail (at least) business is done. That's all.
Apple should twist the arm of their ad agency as well, to find new ways of incorporating the iPad in their business, and developing software for them. (I don't think they'd have to twist TOO hard.)
Want to become a better writer? Type "use vs. utilize" into google.
Almost certainly NOT a customer hardware configuration. The cost of added a configuration management for, say, 15,000 units plus replacements would more than overwhelm and marginal cost savings is parts. These units cost Apple ~ $325 ea. Even assuming your $100 ea which I think would be low, at $225 ea savings that's only $3.4 million savings world-wide. Would not begin to cover the cost of managing a supply chain change to implement the major changes your talking about.
Agreed! When the iPad3 comes out all these units are destined for refurbishment and sale. Again, reducing Apple's initial investment!
Still seems like a waste to me. iPads being used as nothing more than a glamorous price tag? And not to mention during a high demand beginning of the iPad 2 life cycle? Imagine walking into an Apple Store wanting to buy an iPad 2 only to be turned away for a couple weeks and having to walk past all those iPad 2s being used to give you a price, details, and comparisons. I, for one, would be rather annoyed.
I sympathize with you, my friend. It must be hell going through life with that huge 'cloud of negativity' hanging over your head, blocking out the sun. Imagine a life where every day is dull and dreary .... must really get you down. I'd explain to you 'what a sunny day feels like' ..... but how do you explain an airplane to a fish? sigh!
Hey Neil,
Want to become a better writer? Type "use vs. utilize" into google.
As first posts go, that was one of them.
Wel...come...
I've seen iPads in many high-end restaurants in Manhattan, as well as a couple in southern Connecticut. It's almost always the wine list they use the iPad for. I love mine, but this seems like overkill. Maybe not...but it definitely surprised me the first few times. After that I just shrugged. I'll admit it does make finding wine a bit easier, and the waiter doesn't have to stand there to tell you about each bottle. We always end up asking him anyway, but maybe it has cut their costs. Or maybe it's trendy. We'll see. I checked for angry birds one time and...no dice.
It also means that the last bottle you spent time on deciding over hasn't been snapped up by another table, prompting the waiter to return with the bad news and beginning the selection process all over again.
iPad's and iPod touches with custom Apps, linked to a backend hosted on a Lion based OSX server running on a Mini, MacBook or iMac could present an all in one solution for small to medium businesses at a fairly low TCO, when you consider all the things that could be replaced.
I bet this was pretty inexpensive for Apple to do, as well. Compared to the retail iPad, there are probably no cameras, no speakers, no battery, a smaller hd, possibly less RAM (only the one app to run at a time), plus obviously no retail markup... I'm thinking these cost Apple about $100 each...
???
They are regular iPad 2's as explained in the article, not a different, specially made iPad.
And the iPad does not have an HD.
It's interesting. The iPad has become a replacement for the traditional kiosk. Those manufacturers should be the next to worry about being pushed out of business.
Not necessarily. Good businesses learn to evolve with changing technology. A kiosk is just a PC inside a cabinet. Kiosk-makers could redesign their kiosks around iPads. But, a 10-inch screen is kinda small-ish for kiosk purposes, I think. Which is to say that they're fine for input and basic information?most ATM screens are about that size. But for real interactivity and information density?say, a children's museum, or any museum, for that matter?you'd want a touch device with a larger screen. If or when iMacs go full-multi-touch*, is when kiosk makers should sit up and take notice.
Hmmm... Come to think of it, kiosk-makers could pair an iMac and iPad together, using the iPad as the input device and the iMac as the information device.
* Lion appears to be an intermediate step towards an OS version that supports full-screen multi-touch, as well as traditional cursor-based input**.
** The mouse & trackpad are not going away anytime soon.
Still seems like a waste to me. iPads being used as nothing more than a glamorous price tag? And not to mention during a high demand beginning of the iPad 2 life cycle? Imagine walking into an Apple Store wanting to buy an iPad 2 only to be turned away for a couple weeks and having to walk past all those iPad 2s being used to give you a price, details, and comparisons. I, for one, would be rather annoyed.
I sympathize with you, my friend. It must be hell going through life with that huge 'cloud of negativity' hanging over your head, blocking out the sun. Imagine a life where every day is dull and dreary .... must really get you down. I'd explain to you 'what a sunny day feels like' ..... but how do you explain an airplane to a fish? sigh!
JOE BTFSPLK is very simply the world's biggest jinx. He walks around with a perpetually dark rain cloud a foot over his head. Once he appears on any scene, dreadfully bad luck befalls anyone in his vicinity.
Though well-meaning and gentle, his reputation inevitably precedes him, so Joe is a very lonely and feared little man.
He is also a character with an apparently unpronounceable name, but creator Al Capp pronounced Btfsplk with a "raspberries" sound, also known as a "Bronx cheer."
Joe Btfsplk