Apple store employees earn $278 per hour for the company

New estimates from Asymco’s Horace Dediu indicate that each Apple store employee generates about $278 per hour in revenue for the company. These findings are based off of data that Cupertino publishes about its retail segment and are cataloged at ifoAppleStore.com.

An average Apple store generates over $100,000 per employee per quarter. In 2010, revenue on average was $481,000 per employee. A retailer like JC Penny only generates around $124,000 per employee per year.

Using these metrics and others, Dediu was able to calculate that each visitor to the Apple store generates about $45 in revenue. There are over 250 million visits per year, and already 222 million in the first three quarters of 2011.

Data also shows that there is one employee for every 2,500 visitors per quarter. Assuming that an employee works for 360 hours per quarter, this breaks down to around six visitors per hour or one every 10 minutes.

The statistics are pretty incredible and it seems the sky is the limit for Apple retail stores. The company opened their newest store at Grand Central Terminal in New York City earlier today. In typical fashion, the entire terminal was packed with Apple fans anxious to be part of the experience. The Grand Central Terminal Apple Store is now the fifth Apple store in New York City and will likely become the flagship location.

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Samsung flexible transparent tablet

Samsung has released a concept video showing what the future of mobile phones and tablets could look like. The clip opens with a ringing phone which is then rolled out and turned into a video conferencing tablet as others look on in amazement.

The remainder of the half minute clip shows potential uses for such a device in multiple scenarios using augmented reality. One scene shows the user snapping a photo of text on a restaurant menu which then shows a 3D image of the dish. Another scene demos a translator app where both participants can speak into the tablet on opposite sides of the transparent screen. The tablet correctly translates and displays the conversation in each user's native language.

The technology in the clip is still several years away but it’s interesting to see how tech companies envision the future. Some aspects, like augmented reality, have been around for several years but have yet to make a huge impact on mobile devices.

Samsung has shown us working prototypes of flexible AMOLED displays earlier this year and Nokia demoed a flexible phone prototype in October.

Although, as impressive as these real-life displays are, creating something like we see in the video from Samsung still presents some challenges as the physical hardware like the processor and memory has to reside somewhere.  Additionally one must wonder how the display would be powered if there are no visible batteries inside the transparent panel.

watch the video here 

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Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 and 10.1-inch tablets

Motorola Mobility and Verizon Wireless have announced the addition of two new tablets on the Verizon 4G LTE network. The Droid Xyboard (stylized DROID XYBOARD) tablets will be available in 10.1-inch and 8.2-inch displays later this month.

Both tablets are powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and include a coating of Corning Gorilla Glass to protect the IPS display. There’s also a front-facing 1.3 MP camera and a 5 MP rear shooter as well as an infrared port that works in conjunction with the Dijit app. Dijit allows the tablet to double as a universal remote control complete with programming guide for TVs, Blu-ray players, DVRs and other consumer electronics.

As is the case with their non-LTE counterparts, the Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition, the Xyboard tablets will initially ship with Android 3.2 Honeycomb but will be upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich when it becomes available.

The Droid Xyboard 10.1 will be available in three different storage capacities: 16 GB for $529.99, 32 GB for $629.99 and 64 GB for $729.99 all with a new two-year service agreement. The 8.2-inch model will be available in 16 GB for $429.99 and 32 GB for $529.99 with the same two-year contract. Customers who purchase a Droid Xyboard will need to subscribe to a mobile broadband data plan starting at $30 monthly for 2 GB of data.

Additionally, customers will receive $100 off a Droid Xyboard tablet and $50 off select accessories for a limited time when purchasing a Droid Razr, including the newly announced white model, with a new two-year service agreement.

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Intel and Micron start producing 20nm NAND chips

Intel and Micron have announced the development of the world's first 128Gbit (16GB) multilevel-cell NAND flash memory chip made using a 20nm manufacturing process technology that incorporates high-K metal gate transistors. Scheduled for mass production in the first half of 2012, the new NAND will enable up to a terabit (128GB) of data storage in a finger-tip size package using eight die, and it meets the high-speed ONFI 3.0 specification to achieve speeds of 333 megatransfers per second (MT/s).

Intel and Micron said that the key to their success with their 20nm process technology is a new planar cell structure, which enables more aggressive cell scaling than conventional architectures, while maintaining performance and reliability on par with previous generation NAND chips.

The joint venture also announced it is moving a 20nm 64Gb NAND flash product into mass production this month. The new 20nm 64Gbit (8GB) chip measures just 118mm2 and enables a 30% to 40% reduction in board space (depending on package type) compared to their existing 25nm 64Gbit (8GB) NAND device.

Designed for use in tablets, smartphones and high-capacity solid-state drives, the smaller 20nm NAND memory will enable manufacturers to either cram more capacity into their gadgets or use the extra space for other end-product improvements such as a bigger battery, larger screen or adding new hardware features. It should also help reduce NAND costs over time as yields reach optimal levels.

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Google implements graphing calculator for search results

Math lovers unite. In recent blog post, Google announced it has rolled out a new graphing feature for plotting your favorite mathematical functions. The company claims the feature can handle an "extensive range of single variable functions including trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic and their compositions."

The graph can be zoomed and panned as you please. Multiple functions can be plotted by simply separating them with commas and are each assigned unique colors. If you are interested in trying it out, you can give this dry example a shot here. If you would like to sample something a little more whimsical (see image to the right), try this on for size.

Google took special care to note this works in "modern" web browsers, so compatibility may be an issue for certain browsers, especially ones that are more than a year old. As always, it is always recommend to keep your browser of choice up to date as possible.

Graphing mathematical functions is nothing new to the web. Mathematical mastermind Stephan Wolfram reminded us of that with WolframAlpha, as have countless others well before him. Even Google itself has had a way to graph functions for some time now, but what makes this unique is you can generate graphs directly in your search results.

The company's new graphing feature naturally extends its already existing capabilities as a web-based scientific calculator. Users have been able to punch in problems, equations and convert units for years now, obtaining results directly from the search engine itself. This merely takes Google one small step further toward reading your mind and providing ultimate convenience.

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Apple iPad loses lawsuit in China

The Intermediate People’s Court in Shenzhen has ruled against Apple in a complaint against a Chinese technology company over the use of the iPad name. Apple has confirmed the lawsuit but has declined further comment, according to a report from Reuters.

In the lawsuit, Proview Technology claims to have registered the iPad trademark as early as 2000 in multiple countries including China, potentially 10 years before Apple released their tablet with the same name. In October, Proview reportedly sued Apple for 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for copyright infringement.

China is crucial to Apple’s continued growth overseas but the company has been fighting an uphill battle for quite some time. Nearly two dozen fake Apple stores were shut down in the region over the summer after authorities in Kunming saw photos of a phony store online. An American living in the city published a blog post about a visit to one of the stores which eventually prompted Chinese trade officials to take action.

Authorities in Shanghai arrested five people in September for manufacturing and selling counterfeit iPhones. The bust reportedly led police to an organized crime group that was responsible for buying components in Guandong and assembling them in Shanghai apartments.

It’s unclear at this point how Apple will deal with the unfavorable ruling over the iPad name in China. Cupertino could try to work out a licensing deal with Proview that would allow them to use the trademark for their tablet, or potentially even change the name of the device in that region.

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Microsoft Windows 8 app store

Microsoft hosted a special event in San Francisco yesterday to discuss details about its upcoming application store for Windows. The company shared details on everything from registration fees to the approval process, revenue model, as well as advertisements and in-app purchases. It also confirmed that a beta of its app store, named the Windows Store, will launch as part of the Windows 8 beta in late February.

Built using HTML5 and JavaScript, the Windows Store will feature the same touch-friendly UI that’s familiar to Windows Phone 7 users, except it will be full screen and available on your computer. As Microsoft indicated earlier, it's intended to be the single source of Metro-style apps to allow better discoverability and facilitate in-app purchases. The store will offer support for both x86 and ARM-based hardware.

During the initial trial period, the Windows Store will feature free apps only and app submissions will be by invitation. However, once Microsoft opens submissions to the wider developer community, they will be able to price their creations from  between $1.49 to $999.99 or offer them for free. Microsoft will take a 30% cut on sales, but that will drop to 20% as soon an app makes $25,000 from sales and in-app purchases.

That's a better deal than what Apple or Google offer with their respective app stores, which charge a 30% commission indefinitely. Also unlike its rivals, Microsoft will allow time-based and feature-based trial versions of apps in its store, which can be upgraded later to the full version if the developer supports it.

In order to submit apps individual users will need to pay a one-time registration fee of $49 while companies are charged $99. Windows 8 will be a curated platform, at least as far as Metro apps are concerned, so developers will need to go through the approval process. Microsoft has already laid out its criteria for app approval here. There will be status updates throughout the entire process, and developers whose apps are rejected will be given feedback on what changes they'll need to make to get approved.

watch the presentation here 

During the presentation, Microsoft’s VP of Windows Web Services Antoine Leblond emphasized the potential reach of the Windows Store, pointing out that some 400 million x86-based PCs are expected to ship over the next 12 months. That's on top of the 1.25 billion Windows PCs already on the planet.

The software giant will make the Windows Store and the apps in it available in more than 100 languages with availability in 231 markets around the world. To encourage developers to get working, Microsoft will be running a competition for eight winning apps to be featured on the Windows Store when it opens.

It should be noted that traditional desktop applications on Windows 8 will continue to be available through the usual channels, such as the developer's website, a downloads portal, physical media and so on.

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