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Best Buy to make online price-matching policy permanent
Best Buy started matching prices of online retailers in time for the holidays last year, and now it's set to make the practice permanent in an effort to cure its showroom syndrome and turn window-shopping visitors into paying customers. Come March 3rd, the policy will go into effect for the outfit's website, typical brick and mortar locations, Best Buy mobile shops and even phone orders. Officially dubbed the Low Price Guarantee, the plan will meet prices for all local competitors and a total of 19 online storefronts, including the likes of Amazon, Apple, Staples, NewEgg and Target. Also, the pricing arrangement has been expanded to additional products, but it still doesn't cover on-contract smartphones and other items. While customers might end up saving some coin with the new deal, they'll see the item return period drop from 30 days to 15. By the looks of it, company founder Richard Schulze might be getting his way with plans to save his struggling creation. [Image credit: Daniel Oines, Flickr]
GameStop Kids stores opening in 80 locations, first one today
GameStop is opening stores in the US aimed specifically at children. The 80 GameStop Kids stores currently planned will be open by November 15, with the first opening today at the Grapevine Mills Mall in Grapevine, TX. The stores will feature E-rated games alongside an assortment of related toys, accessories and collectibles. In case it wasn't clear, GameStop is unabashed about which pie it's trying to take a chunk out of with its new line of outlets."This is really a way for us to take share away from people who are in the toy business and have an expanded assortment," GameStop CEO Paul Raines told the Dallas Business Journal, "and show people how to drive kids to new experiences, new products or an expanded assortment of existing products like Skylanders and Angry Birds."Along with those brands, customers can expect to see copies of Minecraft sitting alongside foam pick axes, and Star Wars games next to talking Chewbacca plushies. Whether or not that's particularly dissimilar from adult GameStop stores remains to be seen, but the absence of mature games on the shelves may well prove welcoming to parents. The Kids stores are currently only being opened alongside regular stores in malls which already feature the latter, so there's no need to fear having to wade through a sea of urchins to pick up your GameStop games - no more so than there already is, at least.
Chinese online retail giant 360buy spreads worldwide, may keep Amazon on its toes
Many of us who live in North America and Europe consider Amazon synonymous with online retail -- yet we forget that the company barely even registers in some parts of the world. That misconception is about to be cleared up now that one of China's largest online retailers, 360buy, is going global. A just-launched English version of the store is initially shipping China-made goods for free to 36 countries that include obvious candidates like Australia, Canada, the UK and the US as well as France, Germany and southeast Asia. You're unlikely to find a Kindle Fire HD equivalent in the selection, but the mix could still make Amazon nervous when the brand-agnostic can already find real bargains. Combined with long-term plans to set up local distribution points, 360buy's international expansion could get more of us comfortable with buying from China and heat up a retail race that some thought had already been won.
Barnes & Noble Nook lands in Currys, PC World and Sainsbury's stores, furthers the UK conquest
Barnes & Noble must want no corner of Britain untouched by Nooks. Following its planned bookstore invasion, the American company is bringing both the Nook Simple Touch and its GlowLight cousin to Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets, as well as Dixons Retail-owned chains Currys and PC World. When the e-readers arrive at the outlets' respective online and retail stores from early October onwards, they'll bring the Nook's reach to nearly 2,000 UK sales points -- not quite ubiquitous coverage, but more than double what we saw in our most recent check. About all that's left is to offer the Android tablets that have been conspicuously missing from Barnes & Noble's initial expansion strategy.
Apple, carrier stores open at 8AM on September 21st for iPhone 5 sales, early pre-order tallies are 'incredible'
Apple regularly likes to kickstart major launches with early retail openings, and it's just confirmed that the natural order of things is intact: both its own stores as well as those for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will open at 8AM local time on September 21st to take iPhone 5 sales from anyone who missed out on the pre-order rush. As for how well those pre-orders have gone so far? Apple's statement on the subject doesn't give us concrete numbers at this stage, but it certainly hints at an upbeat outlook: "Pre-orders for iPhone 5 have been incredible," said Apple spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris. "We've been completely blown away by the customer response."
Apple retail chiefs refute layoffs, address employees
Apple's new retail chief, John Browett, told leadership teams in Apple Stores that the mothership (not his words) "messed up" (his words). In a rare gaffe, Browett's team apparently tried what Dow Jones Newswires says were new staffing formulas. This led to shifts being cut and general pandemonium among some retail employees (and a lot of bloggers), but no layoffs as some reported. The pandemonium wasn't really that palpable, but Apple is reversing course and going back to its former staffing plans. The company also assured employees it is hiring. With a new iPhone and possibly new iPad on the near horizon, coupled with the holidays not that far off, Apple is going to need all hands on deck. Some excellent color commentary by Jim Dalrymple here.
Editorial: Carriers, let customers choose their own phones
Remember what the experience of shopping for a gadget was like at big-box stores years ago? Whatever your actual needs were, the store clerks would invariably steer you towards whatever they were getting a commission to sell, or whatever scratched their personal itch. Why would you even go to a store if you knew you would never get an honest answer? The problem was bad enough for Apple in the 1990s, when Macs were often relegated to a dark corner alongside the Ethernet cables, that the company started up its own retail chain. It didn't get better for most of us until outlets like Best Buy backed off and sometimes made it a point to advertise commission-free staff. Today, while it's tough to completely escape personal bias and the occasional exception to the rule, it's more likely than not that a modern general electronics store will give you a decent shot at buying what you really want. But just try buying a cellphone at a carrier store today.
The Engadget Interview: GameStop CEO Paul Raines talks tablets, OUYA and the MVNO that never was
Looking to unload your unwanted gaming gear? You're probably on your way to GameStop. As the largest dedicated video game retailer in the world, it's hard to imagine a games enthusiast who hasn't browsed its wares a time or two. Over the last few years, however, the firm has been expanding outside of retail sales -- dipping its fingers into digital distribution, streaming and even phones and tablets. The brick-and-mortar store even seemed to be flirting with building a mobile network. With all these changes underfoot and a new console cycle just around the corner, it seemed like a good time to catch up with GameStop CEO Paul Raines to get some perspective.
Apple launches new iPad in China on July 20th (update: here's why)
Apple is about to complete an important part of the puzzle for the new iPad's world rollout: it just confirmed that its Retina display-packing tablet will reach mainland China on July 20th. The company isn't specific about local pricing, but it's promising both WiFi and cellular versions at its own stores and through resellers. The company is keen to avoid some of the mobs and scalping it's seen in the past and will open reservations for pickup starting on July 19th -- although the company is unusually limiting the reservation window to just three hours each day, between 9AM and noon. No matter how it shakes out, the official Chinese expansion is likely to keep the number of slingshot-delivered imports to a minimum. Update: As some commenters have noted, the Chinese launch is helped mostly by the truce with Proview. The current iPad design has been certified since March; Apple isn't about to mention Proview by name in the release, but it likely wasn't keen on risking another store ban when it could just avoid the battle altogether.
Carnegie Mellon researchers develop robot that takes inventory, helps you find aisle four
Fed up with wandering through supermarket aisles in an effort to cross that last item off your shopping list? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Intel Science and Technology Center in Embedded Computing have developed a robot that could ease your pain and help store owners keep items in stock. Dubbed AndyVision, the bot is equipped with a Kinect sensor, image processing and machine learning algorithms, 2D and 3D images of products and a floor plan of the shop in question. As the mechanized worker roams around, it determines if items are low or out of stock and if they've been incorrectly shelved. Employees then receive the data on iPads and a public display updates an interactive map with product information for shoppers to peruse. The automaton is currently meandering through CMU's campus store, but it's expected to wheel out to a few local retailers for testing sometime next year. Head past the break to catch a video of the automated inventory clerk at work.
Google to hand over $25 Play credit with each Nexus 7 tablet purchase
Among the premature Google Play leaks this morning is a line about a purchase bonus, to ship alongside each Nexus 7 tablet. As a temporary incentive, Mountain View is offering customers a $25 credit to spend on Play store content, along with additional content, including a copy of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. We're just minutes away from the start of Google's I/O conference keynote, where we expect to hear full details about the tablet and bonus cash, along with a handful of other devices, such as the Nexus Q.
PayPal lines up 15 retailers for mobile payments, will let you buy Jamba Juice smoothies with a smartphone
Although PayPal's mobile payment system started out small with a Home Depot deal, that snowball is quickly rolling itself into a boulder. Starting next month, 15 extra US retailers will be happy to see you slap down your smartphone (not literally, we hope) instead of a credit card. The selection leads us to think a lot of smartphone owners like to shop for wearables -- Aéropostale, Foot Locker and JC Penney are in the batch, along with others -- but there's a few useful exceptions, like Barnes & Noble, Jamba Juice and TigerDirect. At least a total of 20 merchants are expected by the end of year, and as with Home Depot, you won't need special hardware besides an Android or iOS device to spend your hard-earned cash. We'll just be thankful we won't have to buy our yogurt with actual cash, like savages.
New iPad to hit 30 more countries this weekend, work on its tan
The corners of the Earth that don't have a new iPad have been quickly shrinking, and Apple's tablet is about to get nigh-on inescapable as of this weekend. A round of 23 more countries is getting the 2012 refresh on May 11, most of it being South American countries such as Foxconn's new manufacturing hub, Brazil. Parts of Africa and southeast Asia will be served as well, such as the home of our favorite unofficial hands-on sessions, Vietnam. Seven Persian Gulf countries will get their Retina Display fix one day later. By the time the weekend is up, the iPad will be available in nearly 90 countries on this planet, which makes it highly likely that anyone reading this article can find the slate in a local retail store.
Apple and IKEA, two similar retail stories
There's a fascinating writeup over at Asymco about Apple's retail strategy as compared with another very popular retail chain: IKEA. On the surface, the two brands seem dissimilar. One is a popular computer maker turned mobile device innovator, while the other is a simple and low-cost furniture maker from Sweden. But when you look at the retail scale and strategy of both companies, the similarities become apparent. Both go for high profit margins and striking design decisions, and both brands go from design to factory to retail in one big all-in-one solution. It turns out the sales growths are similar too, with a few important differences. IKEA stores are obviously much bigger than Apple Stores, more than 30 times the size. And Apple, because it sells such expensive items, is able to claim a much higher dollars-spent-per-visitor figure, way higher than IKEA's US$27 per visitor to its stores. But on the other hand, IKEA's sales are solid, stable, and well-earned. Furniture is not a market known for big sweeping changes or volatile pricing. Apple, on the other hand, has earned its standing relatively quickly. While its products are certainly awesome, there's always a chance another company could come along with some big innovations and steal those sales away. There's a lot to be learned in the similarities and differences between these two companies -- both have put together very successful strategies for retail, but done so in very different ways.
Amazon Appstore shatters $20 ceiling for in-app purchases
In a move that's likely to grab the attention of more than a few Android developers, Amazon has announced that its arbitrary $20 limit for in-app purchases via the Appstore is no more. The company announced this change in an email to developers, which follows a tweak to the Appstore's parental controls. In-app purchasing is rather new territory for the Amazon crew, which first unveiled the necessary APIs just last week. There's no word on what new monetary limit is now in place, but make sure to watch your spending, kids -- some of these apps are incredibly habit-forming.
Amazon adds in-app purchasing to Appstore for Android devices, Kindle Fire
Amazon's Appstore has offered a typical application acquisition experience, save for one important detail: in-app purchasing. Beginning today, devs can now take advantage of the familiar revenue booster already available in the iOS App Store and Google Play, through the use of the Amazon Appstore In-App Purchasing API. The service will enable Android device and Kindle Fire users to pick up expansion packs, virtual gaming currency or manage subscriptions from within individual applications, with the same one-click purchase experience available in Amazon's online store. A handful of top devs like Disney and Conde Nast have already hopped on board, but those of you who haven't received an early nod from AMZN can now join in on the fun as well. Click past the break for a brief video intro from the e-tailer, along with a handful of testimonials in the full press release.
Best Buy to close 50 big box US retail stores, open 100 Mobile stand-alone outlets in 2013
Still driving to your local Best Buy to fondle all the latest gadgets before swiping your card, or hopping to the web to pull the trigger? That tradition could be short-lived, if you happen to live near one of 50 big box retail stores that the company plans to shutter in 2013. The move was announced alongside Best Buy's Q4 earnings report, which includes action items aimed to trim $800 million in costs by 2015. The closings will no-doubt come along with staffer reductions, some of whom could be transferred to one of 100 Best Buy Mobile "small format stand-alone stores" set to launch next year. While an unfortunate move for some customers and employees, it does show some foresight on behalf of BBY management, who likely recognize a continuing shift to online purchasing, and a greater emphasis on mobile devices, which require significantly smaller showrooms, cost less to ship and could offer greater margins to boot.
Apple patents new method for water detection
Apple has submitted a patent that describes a better method of detecting water in an electronic device. In other words, Apple has devised a way to know if your iPhone has been in a pool (for example) before you try to return it to an Apple Store as defective. The patent describes a method of covering up an internal electronics sensor with a glob of water-soluble glue, which dissolves and reveals the sensor when exposed to water. The appearance of the sensor would tip off anyone examining the phone to water exposure. There are a number of different methods described in the patent, but they all follow that basic idea. I question this research. Should Apple dedicate so much time and effort into uncovering customers' mistakes? Wouldn't it be better to spend that time making iPhones just more resistant to liquids? Then again, that's easy for me to say, but burdensome for Apple to replace all of the devices that suffer water damage every year. If a patent like this helps Apple avoid some of those costs, maybe that's better for both the company and its customers. [Via Engadget]
Apple Store customer photos become part of art exhibit
Image: Shutterstock.com The next time you go to an Apple store, you should resist the urge to fire up Photo Booth and snap a photo of yourself gazing into that MacBook Pro. If you don't, you may find yourself part of an art exhibit like the one created by Irby Pace. According to a Wired article, Pace is a Master of Fine Arts student at the University of North Texas who created an Apple store-inspired gallery exhibit called Unintended Consequences. The art work includes images Pace retrieved from display devices in a handful of Texas and New York City Apple stores. Pace began his project by visiting Apple stores, locating images left on a device and manually emailing the pictures to himself. Eventually, he figured out a way to dump a large number of them, over 1,000 pictures total, directly to his iPad. After combing through the images, he picked several striking snapshots, enlarged them and compiled them into an exhibit. While his method may make some people uncomfortable, Pace doesn't think he did anything wrong. He argues, "the people [in the images] consciously left the images behind for anyone to see, or to take." He also did it under the noses of Apple employees who didn't seem to notice what Pace was doing. "None of them seemed interested at all in what I was doing," says Pace, "One employee in New York questioned what I was doing but I told him that I was merely comparing the products." Pace's actions are similar to those of Kyle McDonald who used spyware to capture images of people looking at Apple computers in NYC retail stores. Unlike McDonald who took images without people's consent, Pace only took the files. The customer snapped the pictures and left them behind for someone like Pace to see and, as he would argue, take. Whether Pace has the right to these abandoned photos is questionable, but that's not stopping him from showing the exhibit. His work, Unintended Consequences, is slated to be shown next week at the Cora Stafford Gallery in Denton, TX.
Target confirms Apple center openings, talk to Geniuses where you buy your socks
Target this week confirmed rumors that it will be adding Apple mini-stores to a handful of its retail locations. A representative for the bullseye store told The New York Times that 25 locations will be getting what it describes as "extended displays." The mega-retailer refused to go into details, so far as what the areas will stock, but it will likely contain, at the very least, the iPads and iPhones the store already carries. Not word on an exact date, either, but the areas should be open before year's end.
