When Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, his close friend and senior vice president of design at Apple, Jonathan Ive, became the "creative soul of the company," as a former executive at the tech giant told The New Yorker. Everything design-related at the company falls to Mr. Ive including, as it turns out, store design.
According to the same New Yorker article, Mr. Ive is working with Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry CEO who joined Apple as senior vice president, retail and online stores last spring, to remodel the company's stores for the debut of the long awaited Apple Watch.
While details are scant on the changes coming to the Apple Store, it appears as though Mr. Ive plans the Apple Watch area to be more upscale to reflect the device's fashion image and price. To support his position, Mr. Ive recalled a comment he overheard from an unnamed individual who said, "I'm not going to buy a watch if I can't stand on carpet."
