Neo over at MacNN has been paying close attention to Apple's recent patent filings:

"On April 17, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s patent application titled 'Enhancing Online Shopping Atmosphere'.  Apple’s patent generally relates to improving the experiences that online-shoppers may have at an online Apple Store, sometime in the future."

Neo continues, detailing the filing's specific use of avatars and “environmental/atmospheric indicators," which certainly point towards a virtual shopping environment.

This is a prediction that Apple will announce plans to open, or that Apple will simply just open -- a store in Second Life. Any virtualized shopping experience will not provide sufficient grounds for favorable judgement; the store must exist within Second Life specifically. The store need not be a 1:1 representaton of Apple's offerings in the "real" world, especially as the virtual presences of other retailers that have set up shop in Second Life (like American Apparell) have been tailored accordingly. A "store" is defined as a location presenting the opportunity to exchange goods and/or services (virtual or otherwise) for currency (of any kind).