Forum forecast
Facing the fuzzy future of a favorite store feature.
Last November, an SUV crashed into Apple Derby Street. Since that deadly incident, the store has been under continuous renovation. First came the bollards, new tables, and a new glass storefront. What you might not know is that the SUV also plowed through the Forum, partially ruining the video wall.
The store reopened on January 11 with a temporary barrier surrounding the back wall, where work continued. When that barrier was removed about a week ago, it revealed not a new video wall, but an Apple Pickup counter and new Today at Apple tables. This marks the first time a Forum has ever been removed from a store.
Last summer in The Forum formula, where I wrote about the end of Classic Store upgrades, I failed to imagine Apple ever beginning to eliminate existing Forums. In light of this new information, it’s worth reassessing the current situation.
The “New” Store Design
This September, the oldest video walls will turn eight. What happens when a video wall gets old? It’s a problem we haven’t had to think about so far.
Since the beginning, a persistent, unsourced rumor has suggested that the original 6K video walls cost more than $1 million each. Apple later moved to 8K panels and component prices have surely fallen over the years, but the rumor, accurate or not, underscores reality: a video wall is extremely expensive and very difficult to install. You can think about it more like a living room fireplace than the TV that hangs above it.
That puts Apple in a bind: the focal point of its best stores is one of the most expensive and energy-consumptive individual fixtures. It requires perpetual investment and maintenance to prevent failure. Worse yet, when the belt tightens, it provides the least tangible return.
Today at Apple
The Forum doesn’t drive iPhone sales, but that was never the point. It was designed to be a space for education and inspiration. A gathering place. That utopian goal was fully realized at high-profile stores, but it proved difficult to replicate in suburban malls.
I try not to ascribe collective ideas to individuals, but many conversations over the past few years have given me the impression that nobody at Apple was more invested in and committed to the vision of stores as gathering places than Angela Ahrendts, and that when she left, Today at Apple lost its greatest internal advocate.
Down a champion and weathering the darkest days of the pandemic, Forums sat idle for almost two years, struggling to justify their costly presence at all but the most significant locations. Today at Apple survived and thrived by expanding beyond the store with community partnerships like Creative Studios.
The Newer Store Design
A future issue of this newsletter will be dedicated to studying Apple’s most recent store design at length, but you’re probably familiar with the basics: an Apple Pickup counter in place of a Forum, new Today at Apple tables, and simplified architecture. It’s easy to imagine that this design, Vintage D.2, represents the style of all stores going forward, but precedent so far doesn’t support that. Consider:
Apple continues to patch up many stainless steel Classic Stores, and none of these renovations include Apple Pickup, despite the opportunities afforded.
We still haven’t seen how Vintage D.2 ideas will impact the design of Apple’s most significant stores. That might change when Apple Gangnam opens this week or when the first stores in India open later this spring.
Today at Apple is a better experience in a Forum. Sessions like this live performance just don’t feel right in front of a Pickup counter.
There are already 240 stores with video walls.
Derby Street
That brings us back to Derby Street. Apple completed plans for the store’s Pickup renovation within weeks of the crash, a speed that suggests the idea of removing Forums broadly had been actively discussed for quite some time. Perhaps Derby Street simply offered an opportunity to test the concept.
This, then, seems like a plausible scenario: when, but maybe not before a video wall fails or otherwise requires costly repairs, it will be removed and replaced with an Apple Pickup counter. One by one over the course of many years, Forums could slowly dwindle in number until they’re only found at stores like Union Square and Marina Bay Sands — the kind of stores that host exclusive events today. It’s not terribly different than what played out with Apple Store Theaters more than 15 years ago.
Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying here: the Forum is not dead, but it is on a slow path to becoming a special attraction found at Apple’s top stores — kind of like the Boardroom. What comes next, I think, is an honest assessment of the value of these spaces in stores where a few tables are more than adequate for hosting sessions.
Most videos walls burn their hours on little more than beautifully rendered screensavers. At that point, why not just cover the entire back wall of the store with one massive fabric graphic panel?
The Summit
Apple The Summit in Birmingham, Alabama reopened in a new space on Saturday, March 25. Like Bridgeport Village, the store facade is composed of tall quartz panels set over a recessed glass entrance.
Fence removal
After more than two years, the “prison fence” surrounding Apple Pioneer Place in Portland, Oregon, is finally coming down. In its place is a new, more palatable security barrier made from large polycarbonate panels.
The new wall isn’t great, and some of the panels exhibit jarring funhouse distortion, but it’s better than the steel fence. It’s also worth noting that many other properties in downtown Portland remained fortified, and Apple’s decision to move forward represents positive progress for the city.
Featured image
Apple Stanford Shopping Center
At Apple Tianyi Square, normally only a few people are attending Today at Apple while Pickup is always busy. One mistake I think Apple made is that they should put Forum on the 1st floor and near the retail area, instead of on the 2nd floor and next to the Genius Bar or data migration area. People who have reservations at Genius Bar or are activating their new devices do not really have too much interest in Today at Apple. But people who are willing to purchase a new product would be happy to learn more about the product.
But one thing that surprises me is that during the summer holiday, the Forum will be super crowded! Many parents send their kids to Apple Store and let them stay for a whole day 😂 Actually that's a good idea, Apple may consider having some services to particularly serve kids (and students) and put some iPad and Mac desks near the Forum so that when kids finish their session they can ask their parents if they can buy them a new iPad and quickly take them to the desks with latest iPad models
I worked at an Apple Store during the Angela Ahrendts’s era. She was definitely the voice of the “gathering place” ethos. My shopping center store just laughed at that idea though it was heavily pushed. I did visit some stores in San Francisco and New York in which the Forum video wall was used productively. But, in general it was a wasted feature. I worked for several years as a Creative, however my customers mostly needed help rather than inspiration.