Genius Bar

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The Genius Bar is a station located inside every Apple Retail Store, the purpose of which is to offer help and support for Apple products. Ron Johnson, the Senior Vice President for Retail, has often referred to the Genius bar the "heart and soul of our stores"<ref>IFO Apple Store. "Analysist's Conference", 2004-03-01. Retrieved on 2006-10-13.</ref>. Mac Geniuses are specially trained and certified employees who staff the Genius Bar. Their role is to help customers with Apple hardware and software. All in-store repairs of Apple products are carried out by Mac Geniuses.

The layout of a Genius Bar consists of at least two 15" MacBookPro/PowerBook computers, often mounted on "floating" stands. LCD screens behind the Bar play looped videos which offer tips to customers waiting to speak to a Genius, as well as updates on the status of the reservation queue. The infamous "Red Telephone" sometimes seen behind the Genius Bar was a direct line to AppleCare's Tier 2 agents, allowing for even the most difficult problems and questions to be answered. This phone is no longer installed in newer Apple Retail Stores.

Mac Geniuses are primarily viewed as the local representatives of AppleCare (Apple's name for its support service covering service plans, etc.), although they are employees of the store. They offer personal support when customers have problems or questions with their Apple products. Most services carried out at the Genius Bar are free. Non-warranty service (which is paid for by the customer when repairs are complete) is also routinely performed.

Recently, two offshoots of the Genius Bar concept have started to appear in almost all new stores, and be retrofitted into existing stores.

The Studio, which is staffed by "Creatives" who serve customers with questions about many Apple and Third-Party applications, such as Final Cut Pro, Aperture, as well as Adobe Photoshop, to name a few.
The iPod bar serves to separate out the customers with iPod-related questions to allow the Genius Bar to focus on customers with Macintosh-specific queries.