First-order effects

• Shoppers in Australian stores immediately get iPad-based product information and comparison tools at every display, shifting basic sales-floor questions from staff to hardware.
• The launch confirms the weekend-wide purchasing-platform changes reported earlier, meaning Apple's online and in-store buying flows change at the same time rather than incrementally.

Second-order effects

• Rival electronics retailers whose pitch is knowledgeable staff now compete against a format where Apple customers serve themselves detailed specs and configuration options — pushing competitors toward their own digital fixtures or deeper service bundling.
• With the Apple Store app gaining full Mac build-to-order customization, the boundary between showroom and checkout thins: browsing happens on the floor while purchase completes in-app, pressuring retailers whose margin depends on controlling the transaction moment.

Third-order effects

• If the iPad fixture model propagates across Apple's roughly decade-old retail footprint, stores become software-updatable showrooms where merchandising refreshes ship like OS updates rather than seasonal refits.
• The same devices double as the post-PC products being demonstrated, making the iPad both inventory and sales infrastructure — a structural argument that Apple Retail exists to sell the ecosystem, not boxes, which regulators and competitors alike will read as deepening Apple's integrated model.