Apple patents virtual stores

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 21st April 2008
Comments (16) Stumble
Apple patents virtual stores

How the Apple Virtual Store could look. Note the people being attacked by a giant iPod.

The guys over at the Mac News Network have published an interesting story about Apple's latest patent – a patent that may reveal plans to introduce virtual Apple stores.

The patent in question was filed in September 2006, and is described as a process involved in “enhancing online shopping atmosphere”. In the patent Apple describes online shopping as feeling “sterile and isolating,” and that customers relying on a web presence for their shopping may “be less likely to have positive feelings about the online shopping experience, may be less inclined to engage in the online equivalent of window shopping, and may ultimately spend less money than their counterparts who shop in physical stores.”

So, what does Apple intend to do to engage shoppers in the same way online as they do in-store? According to the patent, the solution is a virtual environment not a million miles away from Second Life – a three-dimensional world in which your avatar can wander and browse its little digital heart out.

The patent talks about simulating day and night cycles along with “different colour schemes during the fall season or winter holidays.”, and branding digital visitors with Es or Ns to demonstrate their Expert or Newbie status to help the virtual salespersons pick the most gullible mark. I mean, to pick the person most likely to need assistance with their purchasing.

An interesting addition to the patent is the idea of filters – that salespersons can be categorised according to their particular area of expertise, and then the virtual shopper can choose to only display the avatars of the salespersons knowledgeable about the particular item they're interested in.

Another rather curious part of the patent is in the virtual store's equivalent of user-generated content: there are several sections where Apple is clearly hoping that the Experts will voluntarily help the Newbies without a virtual salesperson needing to be involved at all. While co-operation is often the byword in multiplayer online games, I'm not so certain I'd be spending my free time helping to sell Apple products without wanting a cut of the proceeds.

While the idea seems plausible enough – especially given the popularity of virtual environments like Second Life amongst other companies, many of whom don't feel complete without an avatar-filled presence in the ephemeral world even if they're not sure what to do with it – it is just a patent, and it wouldn't be the first to have been filed speculatively and shelved pending the date when a competitor does something similar enough for Apple to launch the attack lawyers. Still, as an extension to an existing ecommerce site it's an idea that could well have merit.

What's your take: is Apple likely to launch a virtual Genius Bar, or is this another patent destined to moulder on the USPTO shelves? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote DXR_13KE 21st April 2008, 12:58
talk about patenting the obvious!!!
Quote Boldar 21st April 2008, 13:13
Don't the virtual stores in MMO's count as previous art?

Perhaps I ought to patent the use of a screwdriver as a paint tin lid remover
Quote Paradigm Shifter 21st April 2008, 13:18
Indeed.

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to spend more shopping online than I do when I shop in a physical store. Perhaps it's the fact that when I go to a store, I know exactly what I want so I get it and leave ASAP, rather than fight the hordes of people with screaming kids.

Also, why would I want to wonder around a "virtual" "physical" store, when the Amazon/Play/scan/insert-e-tailer-here model works perfectly already?
Quote DarkLord7854 21st April 2008, 13:23
To we get to fight the giant iPod? Does it drop iPod Nanos? :p
Quote liratheal 21st April 2008, 13:53
Man. Seems like we have a new race, here.

Patent race. Patent everything, just incase someone tries to use it in the distant future.

That said, with this, do I get the processing power of a Mac Pro in the virtual store? I've got some pretty intense rendering work to be done, and my PC can't handle it..
Quote UncertainGod 21st April 2008, 13:59
There is so much prior art for this, how the hell did they get the patent?
Quote Darkedge 21st April 2008, 15:52
Apple patents the obvious or someone else's prior art AGAIN. They are turning into the biggest Incorrect Patent Whores in the world.
Quote MrMonroe 21st April 2008, 15:56
Hoe'd up. They are going to use the internet, the development of which has brought more power into the hands of consumers by giving them the option of looking only at the products they are interested in and need if they do a little research, in an attempt to obfuscate information and force customers to sift through all the products on offer the same way they did in their brick and mortar stores? The kicker is that they will bill this as a way to make the store "easier to use." Why do I feel that so many technology companies do business by pandering to idiots as opposed to the people who actually know how to use their products?

The Internet: now another tool in the handbag for people who want you to buy **** you don't need.
Quote Gravemind123 21st April 2008, 16:12
Apple is starting to do what other businesses do all the time. Although my favorite is IBM trying to patent making money from patents.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 21st April 2008, 17:30
well it seems that this is how Apple really makes its money to survive in a PC world, they go around patent everything and then sue people....

So how will this effect MMO that have virtual stores that you can buy actual items with money and what not??? I think I have another reason to hate Apple >_<
Quote johnmustrule 21st April 2008, 21:04
so much previous art lmao!
Quote r4tch3t 21st April 2008, 21:19
Can you sue someone for patenting something very similar to your own patent? If so I'm sure someone could sue Apple (and several other bad offenders) for patenting their patent. Or even sue the patent office for letting these patents through. Hold on, I'm going to try and patent patenting the obvious.
Quote yodasarmpit 21st April 2008, 21:20
Can you patent breathing?
Quote completemadness 21st April 2008, 22:03
i wonder whether SecondLife actually falls under this patent ....
Quote Xir 22nd April 2008, 09:08
Aren't there virtual stores just like this in Secondlife?

...there are in Oblivion ;-)
Quote DXR_13KE 22nd April 2008, 10:55
the patent system is very broken....
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