Apple Inc.
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opened its latest retail store Friday in New York's historic Grand Central Terminal to hundreds of eager of chip maker Nvidia Corp.
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, recently said Apple's stores have contributed to the iPad dominating the tablet market. He added that one of the biggest challenges facing tablet makers in the U.S. is how best to sell the devices when they don't control the stores.
Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer echoed Mr. Huang, saying that trying out products is a key factor to getting customers to buy them, and that it's difficult to rely on retailers such as Best Buy to provide that experience.
"That's why we started our own stores," Stringer said last month. "We did it a long time ago and didn't do terribly well, but we're getting much better."
Apple's new store overlooks Grand Central's Main Concourse from the east and northeast balconies of the terminal. The store will include rooms dedicated to some of the company's personal services, including how to set-up Apple products. It also will offer a personal pickup service that allows commuters using the Apple Store app to make a purchase and then pick it up immediately upon arrival.
The Grand Central location will employ 315 people. As of Sept. 24, the end of Apple's fiscal year, the company's retail segment had about 36,000 full-time employees.
In July, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a 10-year lease with the company for the store. The company paid chef Charlie Palmer's Metrazur $5 million to exit its lease on the space eight years early.
--Ian Sherr and Lauren Goode contributed to this report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs1DEi8yaa8
