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The lure of an Apple Store can be so great that local authorities are doing all they can to sweeten the deal for the world’s biggest technology company, waiving rents and taxes in order to have it set up an Apple Store in their area.

New York’s Grand Central Terminal wanted Apple so bad it dropped its leasing fees and in Salt Lake City, authorities are rumoured to have dropped rents completely, to incentivise the opening of a new Apple Store.

Apple’s retail dominance

As a business, Apple’s retail stores are booming. In its second financial quarter (ending March 2012), the company saw sales rise by some 90 percent, breaking records with a $24.67 billion in quarterly revenue and $5.99 billion in profits.

A staggering 71 million customers visited Apple’s retail stores between January and March, an increase of 28 million from a year earlier. Apple’s impressive footfall is proving to be a catalyst for retail spending in the areas in which they are located, pushing the money spent back into the local economy.

A recent ABC News report states that Apple is going to open a new store in Salt Lake City, located in City Creek. The company already has one store in the the Utah city but thanks to what appears to be a massive retail incentive, it may open a new store before the end of the year.

What is the big incentive? According to ABC’s sources, City Creek has offered a “major concession package” that is thought to include five years free rent.

What makes Apple so special?

The truth is, realtors and local authorities know that when an Apple Store is opened in an area, tech savvy consumers come from surrounding areas to view products, seek help and spend money on luxury electronics. Put simply, spending will flow into City Creek.

The rental deal isn’t a one-off either.

While authorities will never confirm it — even City Creek’s Marketing Director said it “does not release the terms of its leases” — Apple’s lease for its impressive store in New York’s Grand Central Terminal is a third of that paid by other retailers and restaurants in the area.

In fact, the lease is costing Apple $60 per-square-foot, where other retailers are expected to pay $200 for the same area, and it has escaped having to share any of its revenue with Grand Central’s operator, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to papers obtained by the New York Post.

Apple’s success was directly benefitted other companies in the Terminal. In just seven weeks, Apple’s newest New York store helped one restaurant boost sales by 7 percent — impressive as it’s already co-owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan.

That restaurant – The Steakhouse — directly attributes its increased footfall to the nearby Apple Store with its other co-owner stating: “The jump only happened after Apple opened.”

Moving Forward

Apple is showing no signs of slowing its retail expansion, it’s already seeing an average of 22,000 customers, per store, per week. Of course, it wants to further increase that figure.

As of January 2012, Apple operated 363 stores and has opened a small number since then. In 2012, it has plans to open 40 new stores, including a handful in China, perhaps its most important market.

In order to facilitate this, Apple has allocated $900 million for its new stores, some of which have been confirmed in Germany, Spain, France and Australia.

Apple’s retail success is down in part to its customer service, ease of purchasing, level of detail in its stores — and the quality of its products. However, the company isn’t completely satisfied with its operations, and has brought aboard former Dixons CEO John Browett to drive its retail business forward.

Tim Cook has said that the Dixons exec will bring “Apple to an even higher level of customer service and satisfaction.”

Part of this plan apparently involves automating its sales processes, which includes investment in its ‘Personal Pickup’ service, which allows customers to buy products online and pick them up from their local Apple Store.

Apple also launched a new iOS payment service called EasyPay, providing a simple way for customers to enter an Apple Store and pay for their purchase using their iPhone, without having to seek assistance from a sales clerk.

The company is set to release a new iPhone and update its range of Mac computers in the coming months, no doubt incentivising Apple fans to return to their local store to check them out.

As it stands, the company is setting the standard for retail, with other technology companies — including Microsoft — rushing to open similar stores and build rapport and most importantly gain trust from their customers.

Apple might be benefitting from its success, in terms of the money it saves from leases, but companies in the vicinity of an Apple Store don’t seem to mind. It’s difficult to complain that a company is getting preferential treatment when it helps boost your own revenues and increase the number of people coming to the area.

We realize that some of you may have had your fill of Facebook news today, so this is a perfect time to break out some zen thinking thanks to the master of Apple himself: Steve Jobs.

This cool site called SteveTold.Us depicts a very relaxed Steve Jobs with an overlay of his best quotes. Simply refresh the page and you’ll find some new words of wisdom:

There’s nothing more to the site than that, but as usual, the words of Steve Jobs still resonate like they always did. Give the site a go and get yourself some knowledge like this gem:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

➤ SteveTold.Us

If you have been following Windows 8 for any amount of time, you must have run across the Building Windows 8 Blog, the official organ of the Windows team. It is not for massive, Internet-bending pieces of non-fiction that pack in enough context that by the time you emerge from them, you don’t know your middle name.

Today, another installment was delivered. In a stunningly large entry, Microsoft wrote much on Windows, its UI, and what Windows 8 will look like. The important parts of it relate to tweaks coming to the Windows 8 desktop UI. The desktop UI is what you currently use in Windows 7, if you were confused.

We’re going to quote extensively in this post, as there isn’t much of a better way to convey what Microsoft is up to, and not muddle it. To wit, here is the issue that needed to be solved, as stated by Microsoft:

We spent a lot of energy carefully considering how substantially to update the appearance of the desktop in Windows 8. We looked at many, many pictures, and considered hundreds of designs. Our primary goal was to bring visual harmony to Windows, while still preserving much of the familiar feel of the Windows 7 desktop and not sacrificing the compatibility of existing apps.

That seems reasonable enough. Here’s Microsoft’s solution:

[W]e decided to bring the desktop closer to the Metro aesthetic, while preserving the compatibility afforded by not changing the size of window chrome, controls, or system UI. We have moved beyond Aero Glass—flattening surfaces, removing reflections, and scaling back distracting gradients.

So, Glass is out, and flat is in. That’s roughly what we expected. Here’s the shot that Microsoft shared from its blog post, that is well worth looking at:

Frankly, I love it. But I’m a Windows fan, so my take is probably pretty tinted. Microsoft calls the final product the application of the “principles of ‘clean and crisp,’” when it came to “updating window and taskbar chrome.” Microsoft promised more in the coming release candidate Release Preview of Windows 8, which will drop in early June.

Windows 8 continues apace, and as it comes more and more into the fore, I have to admit that I like its visual design more and more.

The Facebook IPO opened hot and heavy in trading on its first day, with an opening price of $38, a spike to $42 and a closing price of $38.37. According to CNBC, it also became the first IPO to see 500,000,000 shares change hands in the first day of trading.

Just 30 seconds after trading, some 82 million shares had changed hands, spiking to 100 million in just 5 minutes.

The pricing for the IPO was set just yesterday, at $38 per share. Given the hype in advance of the trading, it’s surprising that the price didn’t spike more and indicates that the IPO was actually priced very well, netting Facebook its influx of cash, but not benefiting early traders much.

Facebook’s IPO is the largest ever for a technology or Internet firm, and the second largest in US history, with Visa coming in slightly above.

During a live press conference today, NASCAR announced that it is now the first professional sports league that Twitter has partnered directly with.

The partnership will allow Twitter to bring fans of the drivers closer to the action by promoting the #NASCAR hashtag, which will also be promoted on hashtags and at venues.

Twitter is also launching a new product on June 10th that will show a stream of NASCAR related content along with editorial commentary from the company itself. There will be a new algorithm driving this experience, which will mix live tweets from fans along with the editorial content, according to Twitter.

Here is Twitter’s lead on Sports and Entertainment, Omid Ashtari, making the announcement:

If you remember the Daytona 500 at all, you’ll remember the first photo taken from a NASCAR race track which was tweeted out to millions of people.

NASCAR has been playing around with Twitter promotions for some time, recently launching a campaign in which you could get your username onto a driver’s car.

Twitter says the new system will work with its editorial staff paying attention to a large list of NASCAR drivers and personalities, then pinning the great content to the top of the search result landing page that is mixed with fan-created usage of the hashtag #NASCAR.

Neither company spoke of any monetary agreement, saying they are looking to make the relationship tighter as the experience grows and they see how fans react.

Truthfully, I thought everyone knew about the ‘Lucky 7 Lounge’. It’s a secret room at Pixar that’s really not so secret now. But I took a quick poll of some friends and coworkers and drew a blank, so here goes.

It was a nook, really, created by the shape of the building around it and the needs of the air conditioning system when the company’s new headquarters were built. Animator Andrew Gordon discovered it while investigating a human-sized hatch in the back wall of his new office. After finding that the tunnel ended in a ‘lost space’, he decided to start decorating.

In this clip from the Toy Story 3 bonus features, shared by Scott Myers at The Blacklist, Gordon details the discovery and decoration of the room. He also goes into how it was found by Pixar Director Andrew Stanton and, eventually, CEO Steve Jobs, who thought it was super cool:

Later on, the room was modified to add a sliding bookshelf with a hidden button, for easier access to the lounge.

The Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson also touches on it, but calls it The Love Lounge. Apparently, Steve loved to bring people there:

The wackiest piece of serendipity was “The Love Lounge.” One of the animators found a small door on the back wall when he moved into his office. It opened to a low corridor that you could crawl through to a room clad in sheet metal that provided access to the air-conditioning valves. He and his colleagues commandeered the secret room, festooned it with Christmas lights and lava lamps, and furnished it with benches upholstered in animal prints, tasseled pillows, a fold-up cocktail table, liquor bottles, bar equipment, and napkins that read “The Love Lounge.”

A video camera installed in the corridor allowed occupants to monitor who might be approaching. Lasseter and Jobs brought important visitors there and had them sign the wall. The signatures include Michael Eisner, Roy Disney, Tim Allen, and Randy Newman. Jobs loved it, but since he wasn’t a drinker he sometimes referred to it as the Meditation Room. It reminded him, he said, of the one that he and Daniel Kottke had at Reed, but without the acid.

This is the room itself, with Gordon at center with the 2008 Oscar nominees for Animated Short:

Here’s the hatch originally leading into the room:

And here’s a shot of the ‘Lucky 7′ sign and the secret button, courtesy of Singaporean blogger Xiaxue:

And the panel that hides the room, from that same AWN tour:

So, there you go, the secret room at Pixar, now you know.

Facebook, investors, and journalists aren’t the only ones having a hoot-and-half during today’s mega-IPO event. It seems like developers who like to hack together cool little sites to commemorate the event are also having the best day ever.

Check out this one, called Facebook Made More Money Than…, which is accumulating all of the things that Facebook made more money than today. You can even submit your own.

My personal favorite? 66 sets of Winklevoss twins.

Simply click the arrow on the timeline and enter your own answer and source link:

By the end of the day, it’ll be interesting to see how many submissions the site can get and how creative all of you can be. Go get in on the action!

➤ Facebook Made More Money Than…

Welcome to innovation Friday, in which I change up the structure of this weekly roundup, simply because if I write it the same way again I will certainly go insane.

However, even though the content will be shuffled around in a different format than usual, I will, as always, ask that you ensure that you are following TNW Microsoft on both Twitter, and Facebook. Now, to the news.

NUads

NUads are advertisements in which a person with a Kinect can interact with them. However, as you might expect, privacy is a concern. A Kinect is a fancy camera that can track you, so what sort of information might an advertiser be fed is a good question? Microsoft, after issuing conflicting notes on when NUads would be coming out, released a statement hitting on privacy. We love it, they said. Don’t worry, was their line.

Windows Phone in China

Windows Phone has picked up a fair 7% of the Chinese market. Android continues to dominate the market, but Microsoft has snagged a toehold. Apple’s iPhone has about 6% of the same market, but as it isn’t officially for sale in the country, beating it is hardly much of a feat.

How to get the new Bing

If you want to try out the new Bing, which we reviewed here, head to this URL and get started. Don’t forget, the middle column of the three column design is not yet live. Oh, and if you are not in the US, change your country in your account to the United States.

Bing’s API now live

Speaking of things being live, or not, Bing’s paid search API is now up for use on the Windows Azure Marketplace. You can use up to 5,000 queries a month for free, but after that, you have to pay. Plans start at $20 a month, and go up from there. Microsoft put together tiers that contain up to 2.5 million searches a month.

 Lumia 900 headed to China

The Nokia Lumia 900 has passed the regulators in China, and looks set for a June release. This could boost that 7% figure sharply, if the phone finds an audience of fans.

The Omnia M is real, real cheap

Continuing the never-ending march of cheap Windows Phone hardware, the Omnia M came out of the shadows this week, tipping the dollar scale at a mere €294.99. Obviously, at that price point, it will compete with Nokia’s Lumia 610. Our take:

Microsoft made a bet with its mobile operating system: make it light. This means that the code that Windows Phone runs on doesn’t require the latest, and most expensive, hardware. Thus, cheap phones that provide a strong user experience can be sold, with no compromise.

Microsoft says no to Indian OEMs

And finally, Microsoft has decided against using any local original equipment manufactures in India, noting its need to provide an ‘Apple like experience.’

Let us know if you like the new format in the comments. Now, go make a proper Sidecar and enjoy the weekend.

In a nail-biting bit of trading, Facebook landed at the $38 mark, and sat there, almost falling below its IPO price. The company had spiked as high as $43.20 this morning, according to Google Finance, but settled quickly.

Zynga’s plunge and halt could not have helped. Here’s the chart, as things stand:

I’ll bet a whole host of investors are more than glad that Facebook didn’t break the psychological boundary that its IPO price represents. Whatever jitters investors seem to have had, they appear to be leaving.

Of course, the entire financial world is staring at the company, given the size and importance of its initial public offering. For more on Facebook’s IPO, check TNW’s previous coverage.

In its public trading debut on NASDAQ, Facebook’s share price immediately jumped 13.16% to $43, instantly giving the social networking giant a market capitalization of $117.7 billion. That’s $13.7 billion more than yesterday’s $104 billion valuation.

Yesterday, the company priced its IPO at $38 per share. Facebook’s trading debut spike is in line with debut patterns of other companies, and is especially unsurprising given the hype around the company’s flotation.

Facebook also raised the price of its shares, and added more total shares to its IPO in the week that preceded it. Pricing was finally set yesterday, after a day of meetings. It was unsure, at least publicly, if Facebook would be priced at $38, or $39. The company eventually settled on $38. Facebook’s IPO is the largest ever for a technology or Internet firm, and the second largest in US history. Visa’s offering was slightly higher.

TNW will be watching Facebook throughout the day. It will be quite interesting to see where the stock ends its first day of trading. As it is Friday, the company will have less than one day of trading before the weekend moratorium hits, although after-hours trading may be very active for the newly public company.

According to Bloomberg, some 82,000,000 shares of Facebook traded in the first 30 seconds. In the first 5 minutes, 100 million shares traded hands, Reuters reports.

Facebook has eased since its first pop, and is trending down towards the $40 mark. Check Google Finance for real time updates.