Steve Jobs on Apple Store Design: The First 25%
What Jobs talks about
In this promotional walkthrough, Steve Jobs explains how Apple’s first retail store is organized into clear zones for products and solutions. He emphasizes that customers can see the full line, try products hands-on, and connect to the internet right in the store.
He also describes the Genius Bar as a new kind of in-store support, where customers can get help from a knowledgeable person on the spot. Jobs presents the store as a place built not just to sell computers, but to help people understand what they can do with them.
The recording matters because it shows the retail philosophy behind Apple Stores before they became a defining part of the company: simplicity, interaction, and service as part of the product experience.
Jobs speaks throughout.
In his words
“This is our shop, divided into four parts.”
“So, the first 25% shows the entire line of products.”
“The central half of the shop, literally half of the shop, is dedicated to solutions”
“We decided that selling our products was not enough.”
“This is called Genius Bar.”
Key points
- The store is divided into sections for products and for solutions.
- Customers can see the entire line of Apple products in one place.
- All the computers are connected to the internet for live, hands-on use.
- The store is designed around what people can do, not just what they can buy.
- Music, film, photo, and children are central solution areas.
- The Genius Bar gives customers direct help in the store.
- Apple presents software as a major part of the retail experience.
Full transcript
This is our shop, divided into four parts. The first quarter of the shop hosts the section dedicated to the house, with fantastic products for the house and the instruction, and the section dedicated to the professionals, with all our fantastic professional products. Every product we make is in this first 25% of the shop. You can see the entire line. And, as you can see, on the ceiling we have even labeled the sections house, music, children, geniuses from this part, and film and photo professionals from that part. So, the first 25% shows the entire line of products. Now, there are 36 computers in the shop. Each of them is connected to the internet, so you can take any computer, start browsing, go to your personal website, or do whatever you want to do.
And all our laptops are connected to the wireless network of the airport, so you can try it yourself. It's fantastic. So, come here and let me show you what we have in the catalog section. Here is our latest iBook. We have exhibited some iBooks. Most of the products follow automatic demonstrations, but you can simply zoom in and start using them for anything you want. And here we have exhibited three iBooks, and we also have all the iMac models that we produce. We have our new PowerBook G4 Titanium, all with Mac OS X, all on AirPort, so you can simply take them and see how it really is to have a wireless connection to the internet. And here we have all the PowerMacs that we produce, together with all our fantastic displays, including the 22-inch Cinema Display. The central half of the shop, literally half of the shop, is dedicated to solutions, because people no longer just want to buy personal computers.
They want to know what they can do. And we will show exactly this to people. So, we have four sections. The solutions we have chosen to present now are music, film, photo and children. So, come here. For example, you can bring your children to our shop and let them sit for a while, play their favorite games, and we have the best selection of educational software for Mac that we have ever seen. You can also buy the best educational titles. We decided that selling our products was not enough. So, not only do we have more than 300 software titles that we will examine in a minute, but we also have 24 of the best portable digital devices.
We have six digital cameras, six digital cameras, six MP3 readers and six portable organizers. So, if we look right behind you, we have three Canon and three Sony. So, you can come in here and not only buy these digital devices, but you can also connect them directly to the Mac and try them. It would be fantastic if when you go to buy a computer, after having bought it, if you have any questions, you could ask a genius. Well, this is what we have. This is called Genius Bar. As you can see, we have some photos of our heroes up here and this bar here.
I'm not a genius, but I'll stay behind here. There will be someone here who will be able to provide assistance directly in the store and who will be able to answer any questions you have about your Mac or about any peripheral or software compatible with it. And if that person does not know the answer, he has an hotline to call us in the Apple headquarters where we have someone who knows. So, let's hope this will be a completely new thing. We are so excited. We can't wait to get customers into the store. So, let's take a look at the software department in the center. One last thing I want to show you is all our fantastic software. Look at this stuff. We have over 300 titles here.
From games to the most sophisticated professional applications. There is something for everyone here. See you at the store opening.
Transcribed from the audio with OpenAI Whisper. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.