Apple to close some stores during Jobs celebration
Apple will temporarily close some of its retail stores tomorrow to coincide with the celebration of late co-founder Steve Jobs, which is taking place at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.The Wall Street Journal says store employees were told over the phone about the closures, which have not been made public. The report corroborates a post from blog 9to5mac over the weekend that suggested stores were closing for approximately an hour to allow retail employees to watch a live Webcast of the memorial event. The Journal adds that the celebration could stretch to three hours.Any closures would come on the heels of the launch of the iPhone 4S, which went on sale last week in the U.S. and several other countries. The phone is Apple's fastest-selling product, and is still commanding lines at some stores. Apple representatives did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation of any store closures.Following the death of Jobs earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company was planning "a celebration of Steve's extraordinary life" at an employee-only event. In a follow-up memo sent out last week, Cook announced that the ceremony would be taking place at Apple's headquarters at 10 a.m. tomorrow. The planned service is the first for company employees. Over the weekend, Jobs' life was celebrated on Stanford University's campus in a similarly private event attended by friends, family, and colleagues. Jobs, who died October 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, was buried a few days later during a private, non-denominational funeral in Santa Clara County.
