Apple’s Retail stores are a window of the company to its customers, and a large part of the store’s atmosphere are the Genius’ and the Genius Bar. The efficient setup allows employees to easily help customers and form an orderly process to address issues that customers face with their products.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Best Buy is now changing the design of their Geek Squad Solutions Center to operate similarly to a Genius Bar, with customers sitting in front of a wood table and employees addressing their issues face to face as opposed to taking the device and repairing it behind closed doors.

The company is currently testing a prototype store in Richfield, Minn., with the new Solutions Central table. The prototype stores also allow customers to buy products from employees walking around the store with a device to ring up the sale, similar to Apple’s current checkout process.

Best Buy interim chief executive, Mike Mikan called the newly designed stores, “Best Buy 2.0”. Best Buy, with this new design is attempting to make customers the focal point of the store which it hasn’t really enforced in the past as opposed to stocking as many products as possible.

Best Buy stocks numerous Apple products, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad as well as MacBooks and sells almost as many devices as Apple does in their own stores. Best Buy’s Apple-like design will attract more customers and surround them with enough knowledge to make a purchase in-store, and not just use the brick and mortar location to test the product and then purchase online. Best Buy has not yet announced when the design will begin to be implemented, but will likely do it if it receives a positive response from the prototype stores.

{via AppleInsider}

Just a year ago, the only carriers in the United States offering the iPhone were AT&T and Verizon. Since then, three major carriers have picked up the iPhone including Sprint, as well as a number of smaller regional carriers, such as C-Spire and Alaska Communications. On Thursday, Virgin Mobile announced that they will be offering the iPhone 4S, starting on June 29. Virgin Mobile is a prepaid brand operated under Sprint and offers a number of plans for a range of mobile phones. With the iPhone, Virgin Mobile is offering no contract service plans under $30 for customers that opt in for automatic payments.

Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk unlimited data and messaging plans for iPhone start at $35 per month for access to Sprint’s Nationwide Network, and customers can receive a $5 per-month plan discount when they register for automatic monthly payments with a credit card, debit card or PayPal account, making iPhone available for as low as $30 per month. Customers can also use their iPhone as a mobile hotspot through Virgin Mobile for an additional $15 per month.

Although Virgin Mobile is offering cheap plans and is not forcing a contract on customers, it is not subsidizing the iPhone and is offering it full price, at $549 for the 8GB model of the iPhone 4 and the 16GB iPhone 4S at $649.

Early last week, San Diego based carrier, Cricket announced its own prepaid plans for the iPhone and offered the hardware under subsidy, a $150 cheaper than Virgin Mobile’s current price. With Cricket charging less for hardware and more for service ($55 unlimited talk, text, web), the two carriers balance out in terms of price, when considering Virgin Mobile is charging far less for the service. Virgin Mobile is currently offering customers a variety of choices, $30 (300 minutes), $40 (1200 minutes), and $50 (unlimited minutes) and a data cap of 2.5GB.

Virgin Mobile will be selling the iPhone at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and other retailers around the country. Virgin Mobile’s adoption of the iPhone shows the popularity of the device, especially when considering that its parent company, Sprint also offers the iPhone with a contract. The iPhone is now offered on a range of different carriers, national, regional, and prepaid networks, Virgin being the latest to carry it.

{via MacRumors}

With rumors of iPad 3 release date announcement and parts all around the web, new details keep appearing which continue to point to the fact that Apple is looking to introduce iPad 3 in early March. Usually, prior to Apple’s announcement, major resellers of Apple hardware, such as Best Buy cut prices and clear out inventory for upcoming refreshes.

On Monday, Best Buy began to offer a $50 discount on the iPad 2, dropping down the price to $449.99 for the 16GB WiFi model. Alongside these price counts, Engadget reports that Best Buy is updating its internal inventory management systems to show a “deleted” status for the current iPad 2.

Best Buy generally does not have knowledge of product announcements, however, with numerous credible reports suggesting that the iPad 3 is expected to be released on or around March 7th, the retailer is readying for stock of the next gen iPad. Other stores have also cut prices on the iPad 2, including grocery and retail store chain Meijer, which reduced the entry-level iPad for $429, a $70 discount from the regular retail price.

Meijer’s prices have since then, returned to normal, but it is likely that the chain is preparing for an iPad refresh. In the past, all major retailers have cut prices on the previous generation iPhone and iPad, including RadioShack and Walmart, which may reduce the price as the iPad 3 release date nears.

{via MacRumors}

Best Buy recently announced that they will match Apple’s $100 App Store credit for the ‘Back to School’ promotion with its own $100 gift card. Apple announced their annual Back to School promo only last week and replaced the typical iPod touch giveaway with a $100 App Store credit. Many customers were unhappy that Apple was offering very little for the purchase of a Mac.

However, many also argued that the $100 credit alongside Apple’s educational discount on the computer is a deal that is definitely worth taking. Best Buy will be matching this promotion with a $100 Best Buy gift card for the same qualifying customers although there has been no word on any further discounts. This promotion is unadvertised, and cannot be found on Best Buy’s online store, but instead must be asked for in person. It seems that Apple’s App Store credit of $100, plus the discount is worth more to a college student than a $100 worth of Best Buy products.

Apple’s Back to School promotion is open to college students, students accepted to college, parents buying for college students or faculty/staff at any grade level. Qualifying computers include the MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, and Mac Pro. Best Buy’s promotion is also only available to those mentioned above.

{via MacRumors}

A new report from CrunchGear published today has revealed that Apple may be unhappy with Best Buy for holding back stock of the iPad 2 after reaching their daily sales quota. Despite the overwhelming demand for the second generation device, and the difficult consumers are having with trying to acquire one, the retailer refused to sell more than they needed to each day so that they could meet sales quotas the following day.

According to the Best Buy employee speaking to CrunchGear, Apple really isn’t happy about this, and Tim Cook – who is stepping in for Steve Jobs while he’s away – is personally trying to get the issue resolved.

Demand for the iPad 2 since its launch has been staggering – with retailers selling the device quicker than they can get the units in. In its first weekend, the tablet sold an estimated 500,000 units over its first weekend alone, so you can imagine the frustration from both Apple and consumers at Best Buy’s silly sales method – informing customers that the device was sold out, when in fact, their stock room was littered with them.

As well as Best Buy and Apple’s own retail stores, customers looking to get their hands on an iPad 2 in the U.S. can also find them in Target, Walmart, AT&T and Verizon stores, and possibly Toys ‘R’ Us in the coming weeks. However, Best Buy is Apple’s largest third-party sales partner, and despite their displeasure at Best Buy’s sales techniques, it’s hard to believe the Cupertino company will drop the retail giant altogether.

Instead, I think Best Buy will receive a firm slap on the wrist from Tim Cook and his team and will be watched a little more closely in the near future.

So, if you’re still trying to get your hands on an iPad 2 in the U.S., it might be a good idea to try Best Buy today as they pull out all the stock they’ve been saving up out back.

A comment made on Best Buy’s Canadian website by one of its employees has confirmed that the retailer is set to bring Apple’s iPad 2 to its Canadian stores on Friday, March 25th at 10am. The site admin – who has been confirmed as a Best Buy employee – warned that there would be no pre-orders, and that devices would be sold on a first come, first served basis:

Was confirmed by my store manager. We will be selling them at 10am Friday when we open. It’s first come first serve and there WILL be a line up. If we are doing the same thing as last year we will be handing out a piece of paper which you will fill out telling us which ipad you want, size, color ect..

Unsurprisingly, the employee also warns that there will be lines, and that a ticket system would be exercised during the launch to sort through orders. However, Canadians should take some comfort from the experience Best Buy has gained from its U.S. launch, where customers waited in lines for hours just to be told that the few iPad 2s the retailer did have in stock had sold out. It’s believed that Best Buy’s iPad 2 launch in Canada will go much more smoothly.

There’s currently no word on how many devices customers will be able to buy from Canadian Best Buy stores, however, it’s expected customers will be limited to two devices each the same as those in the U.S

As for the iPad 2 launch elsewhere in the world, there’s no news of delays, so launches internationally should go ahead as planned. A report from TechRadar, which quotes an Apple spokesperson, confirms that the device is still planned for a U.K. launch on March 25th.

The iPhone 4 is an important device for Best Buy and we are excited to help Apple and Verizon Wireless bring it to even more consumers,” said Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile. “Our customers have come to expect Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores to carry the best selection of mobile phones anywhere, and offering the iPhone 4 on Verizon’s network is our latest effort to deliver on that promise.

Earlier today Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reminded Verizon customers that they can pre-order the iPhone 4 on February 3 while the CDMA handset will go on general sale on February 10th. You will be able to purchase the iPhone from Apple online store, Apple’s retail store, Verizon Wireless Communication Stores, Apple Authorized Resellers and online at www.verizonwireless.com/iphone.

Best Buy’s announcement confirms that Apple and Verizon want to make sure that the iPhone 4 is easily available to its customers so that they can record yet another successful launch.

Are you excited about the launch? Will you stay awake till 3AM ET tomorrow to pre-order iPhone 4 on Verizon? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

A number of Apple blogs recently  reported that US chain Best Buy’s web store listed three new Apple iPad SKUS for a short while with all 3 being currently unreleased hardware.

The erroneous entries were all lists as “APPLE COMPUTER INC. – APPLE IPAD SKU WIFI” with two priced $599 and the other weighing in at $699. No other details were given other than shipping dates of ‘coming soon’.

It’s obviously unclear as to whether these new SKUs represent unreleased Apple iPads or if the company’s notoriously poor stock system was playing tricks on us all. Bearing that in mind, it wouldn’t be the first time Best Buy has listed an item that has later been released by the Cupertino outfit. Back in 2009 the updated MacBooks were found on Best Buy’s website days before they were officially announced.

{via MacRumors}