Apple Store opening: video, photos and timeline

Two people -- and a police car -- wait outside the Apple Store at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 31, the day after its official opening and two hours before its second day opening.

Now we can finally drop the Apple Store watch.

As reported and expected, the Apple Store at 1607 Walnut Street near Rittenhouse Square opened Friday late afternoon and did so with much fanfare. Rather than recreate the coverage, we figured we’d offer you a spin through the best.

• Apple Store development timeline — Brownstoner
• Inside the Apple Store photos — Brownstoner
• The Apple of many an eye opening — Inquirer (Good perspective on retail effect)
• The Line for the New Apple Store — Daring Fireball
• That New Store Smell — John Gruber’s Flickr
• Philadelphia finally gets an Apple Store — Fortune (complete with a Philly dig or two)

Below, check out some videos of the opening.

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Apple Store still getting primed, to open this evening

At 9:30 this morning windows were being washed at the new Walnut Street Apple Store. Apple’s flagship Philadelphia store will open this evening at 5:00 p.m., according to reports.

Your morning Apple Store photo

Finishing touches continued to be added to the Walnut Street Apple Store Wednesday morning, set to open Friday at 5:00 p.m. We’ll keep these coming each morning through the opening.

Apple Store opens Friday with a giveaway

After months of speculation, The Inquirer’s Michael Klein is reporting that Philadelphia’s first Apple Store will be opening on Friday.

The first 1,000 vistors will receive a free t-shirt so keep a look out for news reports of John Street waiting in line.

As we’ve been reporting, 1607 Walnut got a storefront on July 14th and has been hiring since December.

Links: Penn professors using robotics to fight Alzheimer’s, PHILO launches and More

DEFINITE READS

• The New York Times reports that two University of Pennsylvania professors are challenging Alzheimer’s disease with a new drug-discovery program and a $1.5 million robot.
• Inc. magazine lists Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail of mobile payment service Venmo on their 30 under 30.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Geekadelphia reports on PHILO, a Philadelphia based startup connecting social media and TV watching.
• The Flightster blog shares something of an essay on Philadelphia still being a city of revolution, focusing on Indy Hall, Nat Mechanics and Old City.

GIVE A GLANCE

• Peter Key at the Philadelphia Business Journal reports that “RoseAnn Rosenthal, the president and CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, has been selected by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”
• On his personal blog, Duck Duck Go founder Gabe Weinberg announces the launching of his duck.co community forum.
• Geekadelphia also gives us the latest on the Walnut Street Apple Store — a sign.

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

Philly’s Apple Store gets a storefront

The Apple Store front. Photo by Brownstoner.

Our good friends over at Brownstoner have provided an update on the status of Philadelphia’s Apple Store. Pictures on the real estate blog show the glass storefront being assembled at 1607 Walnut Street. Philly Chit Chat even has a video of the new storefront being lifted into place.

To refresh your memory, rumor of the Apple Store had been swirling for years until in November when the Metro reported that the store was finally coming to Rittenhouse Square. In December, the company officially put out the call for employees and the building has been under construction ever since, though it was picketed by union protestors.

No word yet on when the store will open.

Disclosure: Apple retailer Springboard Media is a longtime sponsor of Technically Philly.

Apple users make up one-fourth of Philadelphia population

Experian Simmons Mosaic profile of users of iPod, iPhone or Mac computers (including home and work)

Updated, Apr. 20, 1:33 p.m.: Due to rounding error that affected the language of the title and lede of the post, we’ve corrected the story to indicate that only one-fourth of Philadelphia’s population owns or uses Apple products, instead of one-third.

Count the computers you see at the coffeehouse to see if it jives, but Philadelphia is one-fourth Apple.

According to research firm Experion Simmons, 27 percent of the Philadelphia market, or 1.6 million people, use Apple products. The figure might seem incredulous if it wasn’t for the large number of white earbuds one can easily spot on the subway.

The firm says that the Philadelphia market is ranked 17th in nation for the number of its Apple users, after analyzing the propensity for a consumer to own an iPod, iPhone or a Mac computer.

In the top market, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Experion says that 32 percent of adults own or use at least one Apple product.

Where it gets interesting is in comparing the report’s top markets with locations of Apple Retail Stores, leaving out Apple Certified stores, or any retailers carrying Apple products.

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Apple Store architect profiled, Walnut Street retail space due to open in July

The Walnut Street location today and its proposed look upon opening.

Updated 4/8/10 @ 2:14 p.m.: Brownstoner has an interior shot of the current location.

The “computer illiterate” architect based outside of Scranton that helped envision the Apple retail store aesthetic and who is leading plans for the company’s much-heralded first Center City location was profiled by the Inquirer’s Inga Saffron recently.

While Saffron’s profile focuses much on Peter Bohlin’s noted Fifth Avenue “cube” location in Manhattan, the piece did touch on the 1607-1609 location that she reports is scheduled to open in July:

The Philadelphia store won’t be a signature design like the Cube, but it will incorporate key elements of the BCJ prototype, from the minimal scrim of the glass facade to the strict linear arrangement of the tables and products. A second-floor seminar room should help make it a gathering place.

We reported the store was hiring as far back as December.

Picketers outside proposed Apple Store on Walnut

Picketers outside 1607 Walnut Street. Photo taken by Hughe Dillon.

Laborers’ union members are picketing the Apple Store-to-be at 1607 Walnut Street, according to the above camera photo from Philadelphia’s paparazzi legend Hugh Dillon.

“[The picketers are] against owners of [those] prepping the [building] for the Apple lease,” reports Dillon. “They [are] using non-union workers. They stress it’s not against Apple, as Apple is using union workers.”

In December we reported that this, the first official Apple store to be located in the city, was hiring.

Friday Q&A: Keith McGinnis on Philadelphia Weekly’s free Happy Hour Guide app

No one is suggesting that iPhone applications are going to save legacy media. But the conversation so often turns to profitability on mobile platforms, that it may be a surprise there are so  few truly local products from Philadelphia media.

NBC10 and 6ABC have free apps developed with the help of their national parents. Shopiks offers Philly coupons, and there’s the popular Philadelphia Concert Hub.

A screenshot of the app's interface. Click to enlarge.

“The rest are tour guides, canned content, RSS readers of Philly feeds or some sort of national content that is supposed to relate to our area,” says Keith McGinnis, who recently left a role heading up IT for Review Publishing, whose flagship brand is Philadelphia Weekly.

In December, PW likely made the region’s strongest big media play into mobile by launching a McGinnis-led Philly Happy Hour Guide application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The application offers users the chance to search and find the best happy hour deals at specific locations, specific bars, specific neighborhoods or wherever is nearest. There are options for calling a cab, getting directions and tracking just what’s your favorite.

Last month, the app became free to use, after a paid trial version, and so now, McGinnis says, PW has an excellent opportunity to test the waters of localized mobile profitability, ahead of anyone else in Philadelphia (No particular provision is being made for the few hundred who paid $1 for the app, McGinnis says, “I figure you saved $1 on your first drink special.”)

McGinnis is now joining the staff of Northern Liberties Web development firm o3world, but the Happy Hour Guide is still close enough to his heart that he took the time to chat with Technically Philly about how the app plans on making money, how it got made and what it means for PW’s always active competition with crosstown rival CityPaper.

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