the end of the genius bar

The Cambridgeside Galleria is a surprisingly durable shopping mall undergoing a makeover. (I assume to make it look less 90s brassy bling and more Star Trek/Apple Store-ish) Their Apple Store just reopened after a long time closed for renovations and expansion. Now it looks like this:

There's more tables, better use of the sidewalls for product display but, most strikingly: no Genius Bar at the back. They do have a bunch of these little cube stools:

and you can see one of the Genius-y worktables in the back, the worktables are where they actually do their magic. Reports are some of the idea is to remove that old counter as a barrier, and literally get the Genius on the same side as the customer.

It's an interesting idea, and maybe a gamble to get rid of that visible base of support. I've long thought that the Genius Bar was the secret sauce, the "unfair advantage" Apple sported its rivals Android and Windows. Microsoft has most obviously started to follow Apple's lead with its own stores, but since it doesn't control the hardware as much as Apple does, I wonder if it feels like more of a mixed bag. And for Android? The people at the various carrier's stores never seem like they're going to be quite as focused or with it as the Apple folk, though I'm sure some are quite good.