[NewsPoster]

Apple's new retail head, Angela Ahrendts, has issued her first memo to the company's retail workers. "I have spent most of my time getting to know and understand the many functions and teams in Cupertino, along with our short and long term initiatives," she explains. "I was thrilled to meet many of your at stores in San Francisco and London this month, and I'm looking forward to Tokyo and the Omotesando opening.

"Every couple of weeks, we will be visiting stores across the world to see and learn what we do best and hear your thoughts about opportunities ahead," she continues. "Looking forward to the future, I feel our greatest opportunity will be continuing to focus on and evolve the consumer journey online and in our stores. Although technology is rapidly changing how customers shop, they will still want to feel surprised and delighted by the personalized Apple experience we provide at every turn. That's what makes us unique. Keeping the customer experience as simple as any other Apple product will also be critical as we expand into new markets, integrate our platforms, and develop new technologies."

Ahrendts made the leap from her previous CEO position at Burberry at the beginning of May. She's believed to have significant changes planned, including expanding mobile payment options.

[sammaffei]

Paid you over $5,000,000.00 in one month and all we got was this lousy memo.

[davidlfoster]

I'd like to think she raised her voice to support increasing customization of the next iOS. I sort of doubt it, but if she had been asked for comment, this woman is smart enough to know that every customer has unique preferences and that it's in Apple's best interest to enable some level of customization so long as it doesn't create security vulnerabilities. With upcoming rollouts she can only fail if she is a complete bonehead like the British dude that Tim Cook hired. That was his greatest misstep so far.

[iBricking.com]

"I feel our greatest opportunity will be continuing to focus on and evolve the consumer journey online..."

No doubt about it; she's in marketing.

[Charles Martin]

She wasn't actually "paid $5 million in one month." She was awarded some initial stock options that vest over time -- not cash. You're probably thinking of this story: http://www.macnn.com/articles/14/06/...ust.one.month/, but if you read the story, you'd have seen that she didn't see a penny of it. The $5M worth of the options were withheld for future taxes, not given to her. The remainder will be given to her as stock over the course of the next few years. It could turn out to be quite a bundle, or not, depending on how the stock does over the next few years.

I don't know what her actual cash salary is, pretty healthy I'd imagine, but the point is that she didn't get "$5 million in one month." If you're ever in a position where you get offered stock as part of your compensation, it *can be* a great deal or it *can be* worthless. Apple tends to use the stock as an incentive for good people not to jump ship to a competitor -- the options are forfeited if Ahrendts either leaves or gets fired before they vest.

[jpellino]

She needs to stand in the store and watch. And talk to *customers* while they're in the store. Apple retail ain't what it used to be. They are more like Starbucks - too cute by half. We get it. Your employees are hipster techies. You like minimalism. Stop spending twice as much time validating our feelings like amateur analysts and fix our stuff when it breaks and sell us what we want. And pssst: let us try out the boxed items in the stores, you know, the third party accessories that are untouchable. Think "Trader Joe's" - we'll open any package for you to try.

[Charles Martin]

jpellino: you might be interested in this story -- http://www.macnn.com/articles/14/06/12/latest.tokyo.store.draws.unusual.large.crowd.featu res.metal.and.glass.spiral.staircase/