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Apple Planning a Retail Store Restructuring to Spotlight Software

Apple’s retail stores will soon undergo some interior layout changes as the company plans to put a stronger emphasis on customer education and software.

Shortly after Apple’s recent iPhone/iPod display table overhaul, the company will ready the third major interior design change to its brick-and-mortar locations. ifoAppleStore notes that these changes have included wood floors and the transition to a stainless interior in September of 2006. According to the upcoming plans, Apple will put hardware on the back-burner of their marketing strategy to focus the spotlight on software and the various digital features of Apple’s product lines. This correlates well with how Apple’s recent marketing of iPhones and iPod touches seems to have a heavier focus on the 20,000 applications that are now at the users fingertips, over promoting the actual devices themselves.

Upon entering the restructured floor space, customers are said to be greeted with a front section of the store dedicated to promoting “Why You’ll Love a Mac.” The correlating signage and literature will note the advantages of Macs over PCs. It is also said that the next section of the retail space will concentrate on the iLife suite of applications and how the software can assist in the user’s everyday digital lifestyle. Additionally a third section of the interior makeover will focus on the iLife suite of applications. The layout restructuring is said to begin taking effect as early as next week, yet could be several weeks for staff training and display changes.