GigaOM » apple store app

Siri will now take you shopping with Apple Store app

Erica Ogg — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:29:02 +0000

Apple’s voice assistant can help iPhone owners find movie theaters, restaurants, do language translation and even post to Facebook. With an update Thursday, the app can add another title: personal shopper.

In practice, this works fairly well if you simply want to buy something, but pricing information is more complicated. When I asked about the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, Siri said, “Let’s go check out the Apple Store…” and brought up the Apple Store app. When I asked how much a 32GB iPhone 5 cost, Siri gave me some data about pricing in several currencies through Wolfram Alpha. When I asked where I could buy a refurbished iPod, Siri offered to search the web for me. When I simplified my request and queried where to find an iPod touch, Siri brought up the Apple Store app, right to the iPod touch product page.

In a post last month, Alex Layne wrote up his wish list of Siri features for us, and his top request was that Apple would integrate Siri with its own online stores, calling out iTunes and iBookstore in particular. Apple didn’t do that. But the company is showing that it’s at least thinking about using Siri to better connect customers with Apple’s own content and products.

The timing of the release is ideal for the frenetic holiday shopping period. (It also includes the ability to buy Apple gift cards and email them to friends and family.) Apple’s holiday this quarter will be huge — and has to be, to keep shareholders happy. The company’s biggest holiday lineup ever is hitting store shelves this month and next, so it seems natural it would use every resource available, including its famous personal voice assistant, to help it sell.

The bigger question, unrelated to holiday and Apple gadget sales, as Dan Frommer asked this morning, is whether Apple will start allowing other app developers this same privilege. This integration could be a test not just of Apple’s integration of Siri with its own content, but with apps.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Defining the mobile wallet: what it is, why it matters

Ryan Kim — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:34:20 +0000

The upcoming showdown between Google Wallet and soon-to-be competitor Isis is just one of many interesting story lines that will take hold this year as companies ratchet up their mobile wallet offerings. But with all the new products from a variety of players comes a potentially confusing year as the term “mobile wallet” gets thrown around repeatedly. What exactly is the “mobile wallet”? Here are some important definitions for those looking to make a move in the space.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Apple’s self-checkout system reportedly doing well

Darrell Etherington — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:53:13 +0000

Apple’s experiment with self-checkout in its retail stores is apparently doing well, according to sources speaking with CNBC’s Jon Fortt. The system, which allows shoppers to buy relatively inexpensive items using the official Apple Store app on their iPhones and their iTunes account, seemed to some to be a recipe for shoplifting. Not the case, says Fortt.

Due to reconfiguration of store displays and staff, Fortt says Apple can actually better supervise the door and make sure people walking out with items legitimately should be. Plus, it keeps staff free for the more important tasks of doing product demos and helping shoppers who haven’t already made up their minds about what to purchase.

Fortt’s source, someone “familiar with Apple’s retail operation,” says the benefits of the new EasyPay system outweigh the downsides, something which will lead Apple to make it a feature “prominently touted” at Apple’s new Grand Central Terminal store in New York City, which is set to open Dec. 9. If self-checkout really is doing as well as Fortt’s source seems to think it is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple made encouraging its use at new location a standard practice, both through staff advocacy and physical layout.

Self-checkout is undoubtedly going to require a lot of initial investment in terms of making sure customers know about it and know how to use it. But if it’s already performing well by Apple’s standards, that’s a very good sign for the future, since as adoption increases it should cut down on Apple’s retail staffing costs and allow for even bigger profit margins for the brick-and-mortar stores.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.