Apple caught testing new virtual tour feature for its online store

For those of you who missed it, Apple’s website went offline last night around 7pm PST. Every once in a while, this can signal the coming of new products. But when the site returned, only minor changes were spotted.

MacMagazine, however, is reporting that Apple used the site’s downtime to test out an interesting new feature for its online store. The addition would allow sales specialists to demonstrate products to customers via the web…

Apparently Apple was spotted testing the screen sharing feature on its Brazilian site sometime last night. Here’s an excerpt from MacMagazine’s report via Google Translate:

“But if you want more details about a particular aspect of the product may then request a guided tour. When the wizard you want to help you in this way, a small confirmation popup window appears at the bottom of the window.

After confirming his desire to see the screen of the expert, the window of chat going to take the entire length of the screen of your Mac Chat is in the right and the left one can see in real time, the screen wizard.”

Essentially, this sounds like Apple is looking to bring its retail shopping experience to its online store. It’ll be interesting to see if the company decides to launch this feature on a full scale, and what the public’s reaction will be.

[MacRumors]