Looks like a good way to procrastinate.

Cool.

I would rather have the basic straightforward website. although this patent does appear o me to group itunes music store in with the rest of the apple store.... which would be nice, but having to waste time wandering around or setting up an avatar seems.... stupid

If Apple did give the online store a facelift, they will definitely do something classy. Personally, I'm not really feeling the Second LIfe style store. One, its gonna slow down the way we buy things. Two, Apple's store right now is simple and very easy to use. And three, a virtual world store will just be weird. Imagine virtual employees, virtual geniuses, etc. Check out even more technology and Apple related news over at [blargKABOOM.com] we have the latest technology news that is important to the average computer user.
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What's next "virtual lines" we have to wait on when we purchase items? C'mon Jobs, time to get a JOB!

Great, I can let my crappy computer take a half hour to let me walk to the MacBooks.
Fucking integrated graphics...

the whole plus of online shopping is I dont have to wander around a store. Why would I want to virtually wander around a store?

i could see this being big in itunes since u have to have an apple id anyway. would be a fun way to shop for music.I think the easy layout of the apple store itself is hard to beat, Didn't it win some awards for best company website?

Wasn't eWorld launched in 1994, not 2004...?

This is less SecondLife and more IMVU. And it's not even that.

@ducttape38: According to Wikipedia; Yes. I know I'm getting old and the memory is starting to go, but I though I would have remembered something like that from 2004.

so does that mean i can be hired to work at the store?

Looks more like Google Street View to me. They may possibly be interested in unifying their online store with their retail presence. Apple Store View, if you will. :-) Seems like something they should have been pushing back when they were pushing QuickTime VR.

Regardless, it's a bad idea, and for the same reason that Surface is a bad idea. The real strength of a computer interface is to go beyond what a physical experience can offer. Just like I don't want a stack of papers dumped on the table in front of me, I don't want to wander aisles blocked by people trying to find something.

That said, Apple is pretty late to the game when it comes to user-generated content. How long has Amazon (and others) had things like reviews and "also bought" recommendations? You won't find anything engaging like that at all on Apple's site. Rather odd, given that they have technology like that in use for the iTMS. I don't see how any of that requires an "atmosphere" update, though.

umm eworld closed down in 1996... how could it "unlaunch" in 2004 when it was dead for nearly a decade by that point...

@calebc: perhaps it was a confusion with iTools? But even iTools ceased to be as it was in 2002 (turning into .mac)

really I dont know where the 2004 date came from.

So...

Apple is going to patent something that already exists in a game thats been out for years?

IS there anything Apple isn't going to try and patent? Or is His Steveness the reincarnated Thomas Edison now?

@dOk: they all do, you realize that? Microsoft and Apple alone issue about 20-30 patents a month, and they are the low end orf patent hounds.

I'm pretty sure life only exists in the minds of marketing execs who believe it is some great untapped resource.

i remember eworld, it was so exciting on my new 66mhz powermac.

I love this idea. But, a LOT of iTunes users are people who are not computer-savvy, so I can also see how it would confuse people.... unless this is intended to be an EXTENSION of the Apple services (a la Zune Social) instead of a storefront replacement. That might work well.

The online Genius Bar won't be able to fix the MacBook WiFi dropout epidemic either.

Looks like Apple version of PS Home to me.

Oh wait, PS Home still isn't out. My bad. :(

Because Apple wants to model its next business plan on something that is a bunch of hot air, caps out at 75,000 users online at any given time (most of whom are unpaid subscribers), and is down for maintenance every weekend from 10 AM Saturday to 10 PM Sunday.

" C'mon Jobs, time to get a JOB!"

What does that even mean?

I don't see this happening for a long time, if even at all. Seems too....silly.

Apparently, the candies in those big glass bowls in the lobbies at Cupertino are a bit too "natural" for their own good.

A 3-D evolution of the online store seems inevitable, but if you turn an online store into a social network, what stops people from networking socially? I can't see Apple letting that happen.

Will it be like other virtual worlds? Where one customer drops totems of 10% discount and is immune to sales tax, and other gimped customers can't purchase items when they are in feral forms?

I choose the websites that occupy my time based on their simplicity and ease of navigation. I hate splash pages and flash and any page that has to reload all its animations everytime I hit "back". I'm in, I'm out, I'm movin' on and I have games for those times that I need a little interactivity. Now get the hell off my lawn, Jobs.

So I can get to deal with crowds and get rained on

...complete with changing weather and avatars...

Isn't technology grand.

I'm a PC guy. This is brilliant.

Why? Because people will start to go there just to hang out. They will be exposed to the products more frequently while wandering aimlessly in the store/world-complete-with-shifting-weather-patterns because virtual worlds are addicting and you all know it.

looks very 90's. do not like

So instead of making their products less expensive and more accessible, they're going to drop millions of dollars into making their website more tedious to shop on.

And people wonder why apple will never breach 15% market share. Crap like this maybe 1% of the population cares about, the rest will abhor.

Actually I am pro virtual environment. Personally I don't want to wait for an appointment in store to get attention my questions asked.

In addition, if Apple teamed up with say Adobe (hint!) and then provided training and coaching for things such as photoshop in that environment I would jump on it like hot cakes. I was never a good manual reader and like to interact but don't have time / live distant from a place I could train for real.

The website is still great if you know what you want and get in and out...but those of us who want a more considered approach and also socially connect who can't get to a store, I think great idea!

And Apple should get into Second Life (Trademark of Linden Labs) their stuff is already bootlegged in there for at least 18 months that I am aware of which profits are made from and if a company is not actively protecting it's trademarks.....need I say more?