The lineup of Apple-owned applications that make up the service includes "Concierge," a push-enabled app used by employees to receive notifications of customers with appointments entering the store and an app called "Scout" used by managers to establish precise physical locations within the store as part of the setup process.

How Customer Check-ins Will Work

This news comes from Macstories.net, an Apple news and reviews site with the launch exclusive. According to their article, the service went live Monday in Apple's retail stores.

In addition to receiving check-in notices from customers, employees can also use the "Concierge" app to check on the lineup of customers waiting to be seen, based on appointment times and what time they checked in. The queue where this activity is managed is called - you'll never guess - yes, the "iQueue."

"Scout," meanwhile, is the configuration utility that is used just once by management to establish the various locations within the retail store itself (e.g. "the iMac table," "Genius Bar," etc.) It allows for close proximity check-ins. Macstories did not say whether or not Apple has installed specialized hardware in its stores to allow for this, but that seems likely to us.

Yes, Those Mockups Look Odd

Another Apple-watching blog, AppleInsider, also posted on this news. They noticed the screenshots posted on Macstories were wrapped in an iPhone 4 case, but displayed the word "iPod" at the top. However, upon contacting the original article's author, Cody Fink, this was an error on his part. Fink confirmed that he wrapped the original images sent to him for better presentation on the Web. Fink has now added an update to the blog post to clarify.

Update Your Apple Store App!

On the consumer end, there isn't going to be a new mobile application to download. Instead, an updated Apple Store application will integrate the new functionality. The updated app will ask customers upon entering a store if it can send a push notification alerting store staff to their arrival.

We just checked the app updates on our iPhone 4, and it appears the new functionality has gone live this morning.

According to the update description, this feature will only be available to users with iOS 4, the latest version of the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad mobile operating system.

The full description also makes mention of a few other new features, too. It reads:

What's New in Version 1.1

- Add engraving and gift wrapping to select purchases from the Apple Online Store.
- Reserve products for pickup at an Apple Retail Store.
- Check in for reservations and request help within stores (iOS 4 required).
- Add Apple Retail Store reservations directly to iCal.

Please note: With Location Services on and the Apple Store app open, Apple will use your location to identify nearby Apple Retail Stores and to offer additional services when you are in a store. If you have previously opted into the Apple Store app using location but do not want this new feature, you can update your Location Services preferences in General Settings.

If you own a business or publish a web page about any real-world location, this very simple button will allow visitors to your website to add going to your location as a "to-do" item and receive a push-notification to their phones whenever they check-in anywhere nearby. This small button could deliver a substantial part of the promise of Foursquare - tying together our discoveries online with our experiences offline.

The new feature was first seen and reported on by the watchdog blog AboutFoursquare and the Foursquare site has been experiencing unusual difficulties loading this afternoon. If it's struggling right now, imagine the load when these buttons are launching pop-ups for locations from web pages all around the internet. In fact, the embed code appears to be going up and down off the Foursquare site from episode to episode of uptime this afternoon.

The official announcement of the new Foursquare iPhone app and this button just went up on the Foursquare blog.

Retailers have long expected a day to come when they could push coupons out to the mobile devices of people walking by their stores. This model is much more user-friendly: push a "to-do" reminder about your location whenever a person who expressed interest online registers their off-line location near you via Foursquare.

This Makes Sense

A tool to convert web traffic into foot traffic, through automatic proximity-based notifications? A whole lot of organizations will be putting that on their websites very quickly. Users will enjoy it too, as an easy way to remember to do the things they got excited about while browsing online.

How many times have you looked at a commercial web page with buttons on it for Digg or Delicious? Putting those on most commerce-oriented sites is a waste of time and just makes it clear that someone doesn't know how those social sharing sites work. (Digg, for example, is for news items primarily within the last 24 hours. When I see it on an outdoor store's page for a tent it's selling, that's just silly.)

An "add to my Foursquare" button, though? Expect to see every social media manager for every business with brick and mortar locations to have that added to commercial websites by the end of the week.

How do you add one to your business or location's web page? Just go find the Foursquare page that corresponds with your location and you'll find a link that says "embed" in the map displayed. Click that and you'll get the code to put on your page.

Where will people start putting these buttons? The sky, or rather every web page about the whole real-world under the sky, is the limit.

In July, we discussed how Foursquare works with brands like the Independent Film Channel and the History Channel to create very interesting "lenses" through which to experience locations around any city.

There's a fair amount of overhead required in order to do that, though. You can add one of these new buttons to your site in seconds. This is a simple, but very exciting change.

Instead, the new "ShopAlerts" service is actually a white-label platform that allows retailers and other businesses to send location-triggered mobile text messages to consumers who've opted in to receive them.

Yes, geo-fenced, geo-targeted mobile couponing, discounts and promotions have arrived.

A "geo-fence" is a term which refers to a virtual perimeter around a geographical region. For example, geo-fencing technologies are used in certain child location services to notify parents when the child leaves a certain pre-designated area, such as their school or home.

In mobile location-based shopping services, such as the recently arrived ShopAlerts platform (it launched earlier this spring), geo-fences are used around each retail store in order to trigger the mobile alerts the service sends.

When a customer is within range of that store, a (relatively) accurate calculation based on neighborhood-level cell tower data, the alert is sent out via an SMS text message. The inability of smartphone-grade GPS to determine a precise location is actually used to the service's advantage. "ShopAlerts brings consumers into [retailers'] stores when they are in the neighborhood rather than engaging with the consumer once they are inside the store," explains Blair Swedeen, VP Market Development at platform creator Placecast, which is launching the service in partnership with location provider Location Labs.

But that's just one of the many differentiating factors between ShopAlerts and the new Shopkick mobile app. ShopAlerts also doesn't require special hardware installed inside the stores, as Shopkick does, nor does it require a specific mobile app installed on a specific brand of smartphone or smartphones.

Instead, shoppers opt-in to a retailer's mobile alerting system, a service marketed however the retailer sees fit. (Think Twitter updates, Facebook posts, websites, or even in-store signage). Once a consumer opts-in to receive alerts, they'll be notified with news of sales, promotions or other messages the retailer wants to send, but only when they're near the store.

That last part is the key difference between this and other mobile text-messaging based services. Although ShopAlerts won't necessarily know you're at Macy's or Best Buy specifically, as Shopkick does, it could see that you're at the mall shopping and alert you then. And because it's a "set-it-and-forget it" type of service, you don't have to remember to break out your phone, launch an app, check-in or scan barcodes. You would just get a text.

Not as Sexy as Foursquare, but Potentially More Useful?

ShopAlerts may not have the "geek chic" feel or the media hype that accompanies today's ever-growing list of location-based mobile services (Shopkick, Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown, Brightkite, Whrrl, Loopt, WeReward, TopGuest, Hot Potato, SCVNGR, AroundMe, Poynt, Geodelic, and whew...who have we forgotten?), but that's OK with them.

After all, research from the Placecast-commissioned Harris Interactive study on mobile behavior showed that only 7% of men and 4% of women were currently using location-based "check-in" apps like those. 40%, however, were avid text message users. Lest you think the research is somehow tainted by Placecast's obvious conflict in interest, it's notable that the findings back up Forrester's earlier discovery that only 4% of U.S. online adults use location-based mobile check-in apps.

While both research companies acknowledged the hype surrounding the services, which may end up leading to real-world successes in the future, they're still very cutting edge, unknown entities to most of the mainstream mobile audience.

The ShopAlerts platform is noting today their partnership with clothing brand The North Face on board and more brands "signing on monthly."

All Things D mentioned the Hon Hai company's bump in employee wages after the rash of suicides at their Foxconn plant, but they also noted that after is not the same as because. China's wage inflation is more systemic. The New York Times's David Barboza agrees.

"Coastal factories are raising salaries, local governments are hiking minimum wage standards and if China allows its currency, the renminbi, to appreciate against the U.S. dollar later this year, as many economists are predicting, the cost of manufacturing in China will almost certainly rise."

Marketwatch reports increases of 5% in Hunan province to 27% in Ningxia. Morgan Stanley estimates a country-wide increase of 17% average. Chinese rationale seems to be a simple desire to stimulate domestic spending and retain increasingly itinerant workers.

Writ large, this is surely not a negative move. Foxconn's suicides are only one small part of the picture of international electronics workers. As Tom Foremski wrote in his ZDNet blog, labor is an element that can be, and therefore more often than not is, driven downward at nearly every opportunity.

"What is common across the electronics industry is a relentless focus on reducing manufacturing costs, and the largest manufacturing cost is labor; which is why employees are pushed to work faster, while maintaining high quality work, and at the lowest wages acceptable."

Even with an average increase in labor costs of nearly 20%, China will surely remain competitive. But these increases are unlikely to be absorbed by companies, like Apple, who use Chinese factories for much of their production. They will be passed on to the customers. Is an iPhone a luxury or a tool? Either way, the iPhone 4, reflecting these labor increases, might spike in price from $199 to about $235. A deal-breaker? Probably not. But it will have an effect.

Amazon says revealing this data violates customer privacy and has filed a lawsuit to prevent having to turn over the records, which hold the transaction details on 50 million purchases over a 7-year time frame.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Amazon states that North Carolina has no need for the personal details of its customers - details which include full names, addresses and information about exactly what they purchased and when. The Internet retailer had already given the state information on what has been sold to N.C. residents, but in the form of anonymized data, which should be sufficient.

North Carolina, in turn, is now threatening the retailer with contempt proceedings if they don't hand over the requested records.

The issue at hand, and likely the reason behind the request, has to do with N.C.'s sales tax laws. Amazon doesn't maintain any offices or warehouses in the state, so they are not required by law to collect sales tax on purchases. However, last year, the state passed a law that required retailers like Amazon to collect tax in the state if they ran marketing affiliate programs, which Amazon does. Amazon responded by shutting down Amazon.com Associates in N.C., the referral program that allows website owners to advertise Amazon products via links, banners, widgets and embeddable "mini-stores" on their websites and blogs.

Despite the program's shutdown, N.C. wants to find ways to collect back taxes on sales that took place before the law went into effect.

Right to Privacy or Right to Tax?

Amazon has already given the state order numbers, city, county, zip codes, transaction dates, prices and product codes for seven years worth of purchases - information routinely requested in audits like this. But asking for personally identifiable information goes too far, says the retailer.

In the filing, Amazon says N.C.'s demands violate customers' First Amendment rights, Washington state law and federal law. Now it will be up to a federal judge in Seattle to rule as to whether or not this demand is, in fact, illegal.

Beth Stevenson, the N.C. Department of Revenue's director of public affairs has not yet commented on the lawsuit Amazon filed saying the agency needed to review it first.

According to Best Buy chief marketing officer Barry Judge, the new applications, which also include several Facebook apps that will appear on the company's branded page, take advantage of the company's "Remix API," (application programming interface). This allows third-party developers to access Best Buy's inventory data, pricing, and product images for use in their web or mobile applications.

Next month, the first of several Google-created Best Buy applications will launch. The new app will allow consumers to do product searches and then will provide them with the location and directions to their nearest Best Buy store. It will even direct the user to the exact location of the product within the store itself. Phones sold in Best Buy will include the app pre-loaded onto the handsets prior to purchase. Also coming are applications designed specifically for Android, Google's mobile operating system, but there's no word yet as to what those apps will be. Best Buy currently carries two models of Android phones, the G1 and the myTouch 3G.

Other Plans: Websites, Gadget Deals, and Facebook Apps

In addition, the company is launching a dedicated website for Best Buy Mobile in October, is lining up exclusive deals to sell highly anticipated gadgets like Nokia's first netbook, the Booklet 3G, and is launching a series of Facebook applications.

The revamped Facebook page, which the company said will attract anywhere from 3 to 4 million fans, will offer several apps designed to help holiday shoppers find gifts. One, the "Hint Hacker," allows visitors to send gift hints to their family and friends about what products they're interested in. Another, called the "Holiday Morning Simulator," is a goofy Christmas card where Best Buy Blue Shirt employees sing holiday tunes, also addresses gift-purchasing questions. A third is a Facebook Secret Santa app. These, too, will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Email Marketing a Top Priority

Those companies that are seeing the current downturn as a chance to expand and that are planning to spend more on their online efforts this year, say that they will focus their investments on search (80%), email (65%), and social marketing (60%). According to this report, these businesses see email as one of the most important means to communicate with their customers and most plan to use it to inform customers of new product launches, promotions, and to get customer feedback. 90% of all respondents listed a focus on email marketing as a top priority.

Companies Won't Scale Back Social Media Campaigns

Interestingly, the study also found that those companies that are growing faster than expected during this downturn are also more likely to embrace social media. Even those companies that are planning to scale back their online operations this year still plan to experiment with social media campaigns.

Imaged used courtesy of Flickr user jakerome.

These problems were only compounded during the last year, as eBay also lost a lot of its casual sellers to Craigslist (which saw its traffic rise 40% over the past year).

As Compete's Matt Pace rightly points out, eBay's strategy of emphasizing fixed-price transactions only muddled the waters and blurred eBay's distinction from other online retailers, including eBay's own shopping.com. Also, users clearly prefer to buy from a trusted source like Amazon, and the average order value on eBay has remained stable at around $28 for the last year.

That doesn't mean that eBay's focus on "Buy-It-Now" transactions was a total failure, though. The number of these transactions grew steadily over the last year (up 20% from last year), but this was not enough to make up for the simultaneous decline in eBay's auction business. According to Compete, 1.5 million fewer users actually placed bids on eBay in February 2009 than a year ago.

How does it work? The first step for users is to enter your zip code (U.S. only) to view and select pre-screened providers in your area. You can then click on names to view profiles, insurance information and ratings. The next step is to describe your project (using photos if you like), set your schedule and name your price. You have to upload sufficient funds into your "ServiceLive Wallet", but the website assures us that "you maintain control of your funds until the project is completed to your satisfaction." The providers you select can then "compete for your business" - they may also respond with a counter offer for a different time or price.

The main site is focused on the same consumer market that largely drives Sears' offline retail business, but ServiceLive also features a special section for 'commercial' customers - such as companies and Property Owners/Managers.

For service providers, ServiceLive is free. The business model for Sears is that the customer pays 10 percent of every completed service order amount. There is a rating system for the service providers - and only customers who have hired providers through ServiceLive are allowed to post ratings and comments. In a way ServiceLive is similar to websites like Angie's List, which provides consumer reviews of tradespeople and other service providers. But ServiceLive takes it a step further, by allowing users to order services online using the auction system.

In our initial tests, we managed to find 6 local plumbers in the Portland zip code. All were unrated, but we assume that Sears will get more ratings into the system once they market the site to its huge retail customer base. As with all 'web 2.0' apps that rely on user-generated content (in this case ratings and comments), it requires a large user base to get decent ratings data. But Sears is in a much better position than startups to get that data, given that ServiceLive is very complementary to its core retail business. Imagine for example getting a flyer with each home improvement product purchase in Sears or KMart, promoting ServiceLive. This could very quickly ramp up.

ServiceLive began in 2007 and is a subsidiary of Sears Holdings, parent company of Kmart and Sears. Currently there are more than 20,000 "ServiceLive-Approved providers" available to hire through the online marketplace. The $10.00 posting fee for users to place an order on ServiceLive has been waived for the rest of February, as an initial promotion. But we obviously think that Sears can find other much more effective ways to promote the service in its Sears and KMart stores.

Sears says that it is the leading home appliance retailer, so ServiceLive.com is a natural online complement to its core offline retail business. This is definitely worth watching to see how quickly it grows, as it's potentially a very useful service for both homeowners and tradespeople.