AT&T integrates Cingular with new ‘Experience Store’

AT&T Inc. is retooling the look and feel of its wireless retail stores to reflect a multi-faceted product offering, and introduced its first super-sized, flashy AT&T Experience Store in Houston.
The company called the 5,000-square-foot store “the first to demonstrate the benefits of housing AT&T’s product suite under one roof,” and said it features a “fully integrated media experience made possible through convergence by encouraging interaction with the company’s extensive portfolio of wireless, broadband, video and wireline service products and services.”
According to AT&T, the focal point of the store is its entertainment offering, where people can watch its video service offerings on high-definition plasma televisions and try out Web-based and wireless remote access to the services.
The store includes half a dozen “customer experience stations,” and four dozen screens located around the store where customers can browse through product and service options. The stations focus on the following offerings:
–Video entertainment, including AT&T’s U-verse and Homezone services.
–Wireless in the home, including remote monitoring.
–Music, including XM satellite radio on cellphones, as well as Bluetooth headphones and external speakers. Apple Inc.’s iPhone will be showcased in this section once it becomes available, AT&T said.
–Gaming across platforms including wireless phones and laptops.
–Messaging and video, highlighting 3G handsets and Bluetooth accessories.
–Enterprise mobility, focusing on wireless phones and smartphones, GPS and wireless access to e-mail and Microsoft Corp. applications.
The store includes a “personal style studio,” which will feature high-end accessories. Shoppers will also be able to purchase of ringtones, crystal handset designs and phone “tattoos,” which can be downloaded to a laptop in the store.
The location is the first of several stores expected to open in AT&T territory this year, with San Antonio and Atlanta up next.