Apple Geniuses to Get iPads, New Duties - Report

Apple Retail Store Geniuses are to receive iPads as a replacement for the current platform they use (MacBook laptops) to troubleshoot customers’ problems.

The highly-portable iPads will reportedly enable Geniuses to move about the store, rather than keep a fixed position behind the iconic Genius Bar. In fact, Apple could dispatch Geniuses with their iPads in hand at stores that are having trouble handling a big influx of customers, the rumor goes.

Additionally, customers could sign on the Geniuses' iPads instead of having to deal with printed receipts as part of the troubleshooting service.

Ever since the iPad has been out there, countless industries have adopted the tablets to improve workflow, and Apple themselves are now seeing an opportunity to do themselves.

The initiative is only one of several changes in recent months surrounding Apple’s retail organization, some of which are the work of Ron Johnson, the company’s former retail chief, now CEO of J.C. Penney.