An undercover reported investigated Apple's retail stores, and what did he find? Every little detail that Apple Store customers have experienced for the first time, too, it seems. As a matter of fact, Alex Frankel, the reporter who has spent two years undercover as trainee for the front line retail of several companies, has described the same sense of passion and will to share information that you may have felt from your previous encounters with Apple Store sales personnel.

According to Frankel, it was apparent that from day one, Apple was serious about selecting Apple-inclined employees (if not already huge fans) to man its retail stores nationwide. "Apple is surely a rare bird--few companies have such a broad and committed following, let alone frontline employees who revere its CEO," wrote Frankel.

With that said, Apple's sales process was all about customer approach, though most of the time, Frankel found that they didn't seem to be working hard in selling. "At an Apple Store, workers don't seem to be selling (or working) too hard, just hanging out and dispensing information," he added.

There's actually a three-step process involved, and it required understanding the customers needs (position), getting permission to ask finer details of the customers needs (permission), and continuing to dive into the available products and what satisfied the customer best (probe). And it actually sells. A lot.

Frankel further explained:

And that moves a ridiculous amount of goods: Apple employees help sell $4,000 worth of product per square foot per month. When employees become sharers of information, instead of sellers of products, customers respond.

He also added that the orientation treatment regarded them as responsible adults and didn't begin with programs that belittled first-time employees.

It was reported earlier that New York Times recommended Apple's way of sales for Sony's own retail outlets.

The New York Times came up with an analysis regarding Apple's phenomenal success in the retail front and what Sony and other companies could learn from it. Simplicity seemed to be the operative theme.

When Apple launched an ambitious project to open retail stores nationwide back in 2001, it was largely criticized and condemned by traditional business knowledge as a self-defeating move that Apple will regret. It happened in a time when once-mighty retail chains like Gateway were closing down, prompting almost everyone to write off the idea.

It seems, however, that everyone forgot the tremendous knack for innovation that Steve Jobs and the boys at Apple have. Damning the torpedoes and doing away with unnecessary aesthetics and exorbitant store spaces, the retail stores were built at a minimum cost and were designed to be compact, simple yet accessible and loaded with products that sell themselves.

New York times correspondents documented the amazing story and watched as Sony opened its own Sony Style chains which were spacious, trendy and in most cases, virtually desolate with staff outnumbering consumers even on peak days. This scenario was repeatedly observed by NY Times correspondents in various Sony Style outlets located in malls and other good locations.

In contrast, Apple stores always seemed loaded and vibrant with a sense of excitement omnipresent in the expressions of customers. Apple stores were often much smaller than the typical 6, 000 square-feet that Sony Style outlets occupy, yet they're doing far better.

The article hints that bigger isn't always better and sometimes it boils down to product appeal and service quality. There are a lot of things mentioned in the article that Sony can take more of and perhaps adopt, if it isn't too late. Follow the read URL and see what the celebrated paper has to say.

The New York Times reports that Federal securities regulators won't be bringing civil charges against Apple over the whole stock options debacle that has hounded the company for nearly a year. The Cupertino-based company can now breathe a sigh of relief, but not everybody's in the clear just yet.

According to the Times, lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against two former Apple execs in connection to the options issue. Of the two defendants, former Apple general counsel Nancy R. Heinen will be contesting the accusations.

The other, Fred D. Anderson, chief financial officer from 1996 to 2004, apparently reached a settlement "without admitting or denying wrongdoing."

"Steve Jobs dodged a bullet," said Mark C. Zauderer, a New York trial lawyer who specializes in white-collar cases. "This is another circumstance where the government is going after an easier target. It will generally shy away from situations where the evidence is ambiguous or subject to different interpretations."

As expected, the new iTunes was launched today at the San Francisco event. As expected, the new iTunes will new feature a lineup of movies from Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax. But surprise! iTunes now stocks on-the-go video games. And even more surprise! There's a hot new Apple Box sighted on the horizon: the (temporarily code-named) iTV.

iTunes will stream movies to customers in near-DVD quality at resolutions up to 640x480 (depending on the video iPod or media player). CUstomers can order the iMove the same day as it comes out on DVD, or they can pre-order and have iTunes deliver it automatically when the movie is released.

The games available from iTunes will work on 5th generation iPods. All the games in today's lineup will be available for $4.99 each, and include:

• Tetris, Mahjong and Mini Golf from Electronic Arts Inc.;
• Pac-Man from Namco Networks America Inc.
• Cubis 2 from FreshGames, LLC;
• Bejeweled and Zuma from PopCap Games, Inc.; and
• Texas HoldÂ?em and Vortex from Apple.

Ah, and now the (temporarily code-named) iTV. As suspected by a New York Times writer, it's the Living Room Mac Box, more or less. The same movies you download into your Macs and iPods may one day stream onto your flat-screen TVs. It will communicate with your Macs wirelessly via 802.11 (it also has a USB and Ethernet connection). It will hook up to the TV via component audio or even HDMI. And it will be available, as they claim, in Q1 2007 - two seasons from now. (Most likely, it would be - Steve Jobs demoed a unit at the San Francisco event).

Ah, but this is only half the battle, so they say. They also unveiled the latest generation of the iPod family. Check that out at our companion article!