The secret to Apple's success is super-high profit margins. They have to cultivate the fanatics who will pay anything for products that they don't really need. Free media hype and huge crowds at their stores show that the strategy is working.

Keep up the products Tim, your company built my home. Love the stock options. Paid cash for the whole kitten-kaboodle and everything else I do and I am retired.

This guy (Cook) use to be a neighbor of ours, and for the record, he had zero personality. He would never say "hi", never ask.."gee, how are the kids..the dog?"...nada! This whole deal must have been very hard for him, to come out of his "element" and jive with the public. For all the folks who praise this, beware that this guy just does not like people...nor did his buddy Mr Jobs. I do however own a Mac...!

All of this over a bunch of machines??

People just went there for a T shirt. Not much to talk about. Perhaps the store is taking advantage of the people wait in line so called "fan"

My SO was walking by the crowd and saw a pool of blood on the sidewalk and a dude in a screaming match with a security guard around 7:00pm. Anyone know the story behind that?

I know this guy (Cook). He is a friend and a neighbor. Brilliant, driven, but more than anything, a great human being. Wish there were more like him.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who isn't totally thrilled with the opening of a new store! Good products? Yes. Success story with some interesting elements? Yes. Good to see lical shopping disticts remain vital? Absolutely a graat thing. I've been using Macs and other Apple products for years and like them, but wait in line and cheer like that? No thanks - I'm the customer and they can wait on me and cheer their thanks when I drop money on their goods.

Apple has the most productive stores in the US by a wide margin - averaging over $6,000 in sales per square foot per year. That's over double the sales productivity of the #2 most product retailer (Tiffany & Co.) The larger store is exciting news for Palo Alto.

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"This guy (Cook) use to be a neighbor of ours..."

Ummmmmmmmmm Jack, maybe it was you?

It was inspiring to be in this interior space that felt zenlike and open and was just so filled with light and, of course, great products. There were many smiles of appreciation at the Apple store opening yesterday besides mine.

I always though glass houses were reserved for people who shouldn't throw stones. I guess this building does not win any green energy awards, given the vast sun load on the patrons and employees.

Lots of big camera on cranes there this morning by 9:00. Went out to breakfast at Crepevine with the in-laws, and the cameras and crew were still there at 10:00, along with a big crowd of spectators. The store was not even open, yet!

Went to the new store sunday.
Absolutely gorgeous. 1 huge problem though. The place is so frickin noisy with all the hard surfaces you can't hear yourself think.
After 10 minutes in side it was a relief to get back to the sidewalk. Very hard to hear in there. Classic example of form over function in architecture. I pity the Apple staff that have to be in there all day! It makes for a good cathedral setting though.

That building style is definitely an architectural trend. Look at many of the new houses being custom-built around the neighborhood: Lots of glass, some over 50% glass, and lots of concrete, even inside.

The new techie look is noisy, difficult to heat in winter, and not very welcoming in appearance. It is too austere for my taste, but very low maintenance.

We'll have to see how long it lasts..

I hope I'm not in that store during an earthquake, with all the glass.

Also, since there are so many people willing to repeatedly pay high prices for every new gadget they put out, maybe they should call their stores "churches," instead of "stores," since it is all looking more and more like some sort of religion or cult.

One of the reasons the stores are so productive is that no matter what question you ask, they offer something to buy. They used to be more into service, now it's sell, sell, sell.
After lots of dollars for a desktop machine they still want to sell you batteries, iTunes, a word processor, and more. The mouse and the keyboard are elegant in appearance but break down in a few months. Yes, both of them. They are used to the breakdowns, there are so many.

I thought the building was an interesting design. Although, it was very crowded and noisy inside. After a while, I just had to go to the nearest Microsoft store to escape all of that.

I miss the Z Gallerie...

Apple is rebuilding both its stores on University Ave and Stanford Shopping Mall, both with this glass and slab architectural style. Why? I can see Apple wanting a new flagship in Palo Alto, and I can see the Stanford mall store needing more space since it was so small. But why 2 flagships so close to each other? Too much money to burn?

There are definitely some people who are Apple groupies, and will promiscuously buy anything they produce, it is true.!i. The Stanford Store has always been snooty and snarky, but may e they think that is what that crowd wants, since most of the stores there share that quality. I think Apple just wants to cover all the demographic to mAximize profits.

Most of their products have been great, but there were a few big losers (remember Lisa?), and the mini iPad is thought to be another.

Personally, I miss the.Z Gallery, too. I loved almost everything they had, and I bought furniture from them in the past. It is such a shame that they went under.

I'm with Nora & Ducatigirl- I also miss Z Gallery - in fact I'm looking at one of their products right now.

This is about as stupid and non-functional as Steve Job's yacht that was just finished. What a monument to ugliness the boat is ... but what a monument to stupidity the Apple Store is.

Look at it. they have a nice 2 story space, and they use 1 floor, even though the Apple stores are notoriously crowded and noisy.

I was hoping they would have more floor space for their mostly lame classes and one-to-ones ... but this looks worse than the other store.

Some people at Apple are thinking, and others are just off in stupid-land. That's the reason they fired two corporate officers today ... and they should fire a lot more. Their software is not going anywhere, and mostly is buggy.

Apple is going to lose the tablet race eventually if they keep doing things to anger their customers, like always leading off a new product with an underpowered under-featured device ... like the new mini-iPad, with the low res screen and underpowered processor relative to the new iPhone5. They sell some and then people have to get the newer one the next year.

I'm not impressed, it is a stupid use of space and does not help their employees of customers get anything done.

I like their original store better, and it has history because Steve Jobs used to go there.

Our city doesn't have an Apple Store. I really don't know how anyone manages to cope.

Crowd the church you unrepentant consumers!

I couldn't agree more with the critical comments by Hmmm, Howard, Keoni, Ducatigirl, Form Over Function --- did I miss someone? I barely got to the front door when I was assaulted by a wall of noise. I had to shout to the greeter to find out where the headphones were but I couldn't hear his answer. The place is a sonic torture chamber. Hard surfaces everywhere, a barrel ceiling that parabolizes the noise down on the stark sales tables, concrete walls stretching skyward on both sides --- where is the exercise yard for this prison? As a cathedral to straight-line symmetry it succeeds admirably, but there is no imagination, argument, or originality here. This place reminded me of the renowned 1984 Macintosh commercial that ran during the Super Bowl, only in reverse --- this time Apple has the hammer coming OUT of the screen; the gray expressionless minions have all been reseated in their lines on the stark benches, all seeing the same face and hearing the same message: do not question this, Steve Jobs did it. This is an architectural automaton.

The more I think about this and see it, the more I think this is indicative of Apple's shift to stupid since Steve Jobs is gone.

First, this building is just ostentatious and arrogant. It is not green, it is not ergonomic. They had to pull down a completely good building with history here in the local community, and they did it to produce something worse.

I feel like this is a harbinger of what is to become of Apple and Silicon Valley in general, the transformation of the tech industry into something like the financial industry, arrogant and stupid in the extreme, but they just keep pulling in money.

The old building was loud enough, and crowded enough ... it seems like this one does not have any more floor space and is even more difficult to hear or concentrate in.

The environment Apple creates for its employees, while they are forced to wear stupid cheap T-Shirt uniforms and sing hail to the chief when the CEO walks in is positively militaristic.

I've said it before of the old store, because I have been there many times, someone needs to go in there and measure the noise level with a sound meter and see if this is not doing damage to the employees who are forced to be in that noise all day.

This is bigtime stupid and mean, and worthy of Microsoft, although I doubt Microsoft would really do anything like this. And the earthquake comment above is right on. I doubt Palo Alto will ever be at the center of a very powerful Earthquake, but should it be at the wrong time that would seem to be a very dangerous building to me in.

All to project an image ... and image of what?

OK, one thing I just found out about the new Apple Store on my first visit there today, there is no public restroom and they do not intend to have one.

It is also extremely loud. I seriously think the people working there are getting hearing damage.