Slashdot Mirror
Apple Granted Trademark For Its Stores
walterbyrd sends this news from ZDNet:
"The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office approved Apple's request to trademark the design and layout of its stores last week, according to patent office records. ... Apple has requested that no store be allowed to replicate various features, including 'a clear glass storefront surrounded by a panelled facade' or an 'oblong table with stools... set below video screens flush mounted on the back wall.'"
... except Apple copied a lot of those ideas from Xerox PARC.
Apple doesn't have much longer I think. They are going to lose with all this Android battling in the end. There are simply too many device makers out there and Google is simply smarter. The fan base of Apple iDevices has been shrinking and people stopped celbrating each new thing long ago. I haven't seen a line outside of an Apple store in I don't know how long.
Steve Jobs died of his own stupidity. Thinking different, he tried unconventional attempts at beating a treatable form of cancer. Not all of his ideas were pure gold I suppose. There may be a few other product plans left over from when he was alive, but Steve was pretty good about adjusting course with the changes in market conditions and with new technologies as they emerge. Since he's not here to make those adjustments, Apple's best hope for the next few years are that nothing significant changes and everything Steve planned on is still applicable.
I just don't see Apple at levels such as we've seen for much longer. It's more likely Apple will shrink down to near-death as it did before without Jobs... and will likely die. Apple has lost its way by going all-consumer in my opinion. They had a strong following in the design and production markets but their versions of Mac OSX seem far too consumer oriented and not so much focused on getting work done. It had been those professional users which kept Apple clinking along through the years before iPhone. But since they have pretty much let that side go, what are they going to do?
Dosen't Bestbuy have a clear glass storefront?
And the Apple's zealots here think Apple invented a clear glass storefront.