Steve Jobs

Apple's glass-cube stores have become as familiar as Subway sandwich shops. But when Steve Jobs opened the first in 2001, the retail venture was expected to fail. "I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake," Apple's former chief financial officer, Joseph Goldstein, told BusinessWeek in 

It's a global, local world in e-commerce today, and it will only become more so. If it's 3-D printers, the Internet of Things and big data that are key forces today, who knows what's to come. What's certain is that the way we buy and sell things will never be the same again, but that doesn't mean the online shopping experience has to be impersonal. Instead, it should help power the human potential of the internet to create better human interactions and user experiences around the world.

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced last fall that Angela Ahrendts, whom he called one of the smartest people he's ever met, would assume control of all things retail at One Infinite Loop "sometime in the spring of 2014." That moment arrived around May 1. Will Ahrendts move the needle for retail at Apple and provide more value to investors? She has big shoes to fill. The first de facto head of retail there was legendary former CEO Steve Jobs, who developed the Apple Store concept way back in the pre-iPod days. 

One of the common themes since Steve Jobs passed away a couple of years back is that for companies to become ridiculously successful today, they need to have a tyrannical genius at the top. A new...

Our wallets are approaching super-size like proportions. The average American cardholder has approximately four credit or debit cards, and the average household participates in more than 18 consumer rewards programs. In response, there's been a flurry of digital innovations aimed at lightening your load. NFC was touted as the saving grace, but with a high cost of entry and a questionable convenience and value proposition factor, the technology needs a lot of work (and time) before it reaches mass adoption. The latest contender is Apple, who threw its hat into the ring with Passbook.